India Hosts Expanded BRICS Summit in New Delhi

India will host the 18th BRICS Leaders Summit on September 12 and 13, 2026, at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, bringing together an expanded grouping under the theme Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability. Prime Minister Narendra Modi leads the summit as India holds the bloc's 2026 chairmanship, and leaders expected to attend include China's Xi Jinping, Russia's Vladimir Putin, Iran's Masoud Pezeshkian and South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa. Russia has confirmed Putin's participation and South Africa has confirmed Ramaphosa's attendance, while Xi is reported as expected, in what would be his first visit to India in several years. The summit gathers an expanded membership. BRICS began in 2006 with Brazil, Russia, India and China, with South Africa joining in 2010, and has since grown to 11 full members with the addition of Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, alongside 10 partner countries. The grouping now represents roughly 49 percent of the world's population, 40 percent of global GDP and 26 percent of global trade, according to figures cited by Indian officials, though other accounts cite smaller shares.