India hosted the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi, where member states adopted a wide-ranging consensus declaration covering global governance, payments, terrorism and technology.

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• The 18th BRICS Summit, hosted by India at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, on 12-13 September 2026, adopted the New Delhi Declaration, a 140-paragraph consensus document.
• The declaration covers global-governance reform, international conflicts, trade and finance, energy and climate policy, technology, health, agriculture and people-to-people cooperation.
• It reaffirmed commitment to comprehensive UN reform, including expanding developing-country representation in the UN Security Council, with China and Russia backing greater roles for India and Brazil.
• Leaders condemned the 22 April 2025 terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir that killed 26 people, reaffirming commitment to combating cross-border terrorism, terror financing and safe havens.
• On payments, the declaration mandated the BRICS Payment Task Force to continue work on cross-border payment interoperability and local-currency trade settlements, while stating there is no one-size-fits-all approach.
• The bloc did not propose a common BRICS currency, instead prioritising the decentralised BRICS Pay settlement framework linking national systems such as India's UPI, Russia's MIR and China's CIPS.
• Leaders welcomed progress on the Strategy for BRICS Economic Partnership 2030, the bloc's main framework for future sectoral cooperation.
• The declaration backed easier finance access for MSMEs and an invoice-discounting mechanism to help businesses unlock working capital.
• On climate and environment, leaders reaffirmed the Paris Agreement, welcomed the Tropical Forest Forever Facility launched at COP30 Belém, and acknowledged India's leadership of the International Big Cats Alliance.
• The declaration endorsed the BRICS Leaders' Statement on Global Governance of Artificial Intelligence, drawing on outcomes from India's AI Impact Summit and Shanghai's World AI Conference.
• The declaration's text made no explicit mention of the United States, despite BRICS members being affected by the 2026 Iran war and tariff measures under the Trump administration.
• The summit marked the 20th anniversary of BRICS cooperation and India's fourth time chairing the grouping, following earlier chairships in 2012, 2016 and 2021.