India Hosts BRICS 2026 Summit in New Delhi Amid Geopolitical Rifts

India hosts the BRICS 2026 summit in New Delhi next weekend, aiming to showcase economic progress and endorse a new financial and political agenda while managing internal divisions exacerbated by the Iran-Israel-US war. Under India's chairship, BRICS delivered 350 convenings focused on resilience, innovation, and sustainability, producing outcomes like digital agriculture networks, MSME ecosystems, and a framework for local-currency cross-boundary transactions that supplement, not replace, dollar mechanisms. The Iran conflict exposed deep rifts, with the UAE and Iran unable to reach consensus in April and May meetings, though the chair's statement pragmatically recorded diverse perspectives, highlighting the group's need to build crisis-management capacity for future geopolitical uncertainties.