The Brics Summit 2026 begins in New Delhi on Saturday, with leaders of the expanded grouping meeting at Bharat Mandapam as India hosts the bloc’s annual summit for the first time since its expansion.
The two-day summit, being held on September 12 and 13, is themed ‘Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability’. Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi are among the leaders attending the summit.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already held bilateral meetings with Putin and Pezeshkian on the sidelines of the summit. He is scheduled to meet Xi on Saturday evening.
Brics Summit Day 1: Key events
The main Brics programme will begin at 2 p.m. at Bharat Mandapam. The first major session will be a closed-door meeting of Brics member countries on ‘Inclusive Global Governance and Strengthening Multilateralism’.
The leaders will then visit the ‘Bharat Innovates’ exhibition, showcasing India’s innovation and technology capabilities. A group photograph of the leaders and a joint tree-planting ceremony are also scheduled at Bharat Mandapam.
The day will conclude with a dinner hosted by PM Modi for participating leaders at 7:30 p.m.
According to a schedule reported by Mint on Saturday, PM Modi will also hold a series of bilateral meetings with foreign leaders during the day.
PM Modi’s bilateral meetings
PM Modi’s bilateral engagements will begin at Hyderabad House at 10 a.m. with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali. He will then meet Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim at 10:30 a.m. and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan at 11 a.m.
Half an hour later, PM Modi will meet Vietnamese Prime Minister Le Minh Hung.
He will meet Chinese Premier Xi Jinping at 5:45 p.m. at Bharat Mandapam. The meeting assumes significance as India and China seek to build on recent efforts to stabilise bilateral ties.
Pezeshkian is scheduled to meet President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan at 11:30 a.m.
India’s Brics presidency
India is chairing Brics in 2026 as the grouping continues to expand its role in global economic and diplomatic affairs.
The grouping began as Bric, comprising Brazil, Russia, India, and China. The four countries held their first foreign ministers’ meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in 2006 and held their first summit in Yekaterinburg, Russia, in 2009. South Africa joined in 2011, expanding the original grouping.
It expanded further in January 2024, when Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE became full members. Indonesia joined in January 2025.
The expanded bloc now has 11 full members, alongside partner countries.
US-Iran war casts shadow over summit
The summit is taking place against the backdrop of the US-Iran war and continuing tensions in West Asia, presenting India with a difficult diplomatic balancing act.
The expanded Brics includes Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, whose interests and positions on the regional conflict do not always align. India, meanwhile, maintains significant strategic and economic ties with the US as well as West Asian nations.
