BRICS meets in India: What’s on the agenda, why it matters — SkimNews
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- India hosts the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi on September 12-13, attended by Putin, Xi Jinping, Iran's Pezeshkian, and South Africa's Ramaphosa; Brazil sent only its Foreign Minister since Lula stayed home for local elections.
- BRICS now has 11 members after Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and UAE joined in 2023 and Indonesia joined in 2025, representing roughly 49% of world population and 40% of global GDP.
- Russia will discuss conducting trade settlements in digital currencies with other BRICS partner countries at the summit, as the Kremlin announced Thursday, to help navigate Western sanctions.
- BRICS foreign ministers failed to jointly condemn the US-Israel war on Iran in May, while Iranian strikes have since killed 15 people in the UAE, which imposed an indefinite trade embargo on Tehran in August.
- At the July 2025 Rio summit, BRICS leaders avoided criticizing Russia for its Ukraine war and instead condemned Kyiv's attacks on Russia.
- Xi Jinping is visiting India for the first time in seven years amid frosty Beijing-New Delhi ties, with the BRICS summit timed just before a September 24 Xi-Trump state visit.
- Pezeshkian's India trip marks the first visit by an Iranian president to the subcontinent in eight years.
Why it matters: The 11-member BRICS bloc — roughly 49% of world population and 40% of global GDP — meets to advance sanctions-resistant digital payments after failing to jointly condemn the US-Israel war on Iran in May. The summit doubles as a diplomatic stage for Putin and a unity test, with Xi meeting Trump on September 24 just 11 days later.
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