The hard part was never the communiqué. It was getting eleven governments — including Iran and the United Arab Emirates, on opposite sides of an active war — to put their names to the same page. Four months ago, at a foreign ministers' meeting in this same city, they could not. India had to issue a chair's statement instead.
On Saturday they did. The New Delhi Declaration was adopted unanimously on the first day of the 18th BRICS Summit, and by Monday the leaders had gone home. What follows is what the 140 paragraphs actually commit the bloc to — and, just as revealing, what they were written to avoid.
What the New Delhi Declaration Is
It is the consensus outcome document of the summit, titled Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability after the theme of India's 2026 chairship. It runs to 140 numbered paragraphs and is organised around the grouping's three standing pillars: political and security cooperation, economic and financial cooperation, and cultural and people-to-people exchange.
It also records the scaffolding behind it — more than 400 meetings and engagements held across 30 Indian cities during India's year in the chair. That number matters more than it looks. Consensus documents of this kind are not negotiated in the room; they are negotiated for months by sherpas, and the summit ratifies what already holds.
Key Takeaways at a Glance
| Issue | What the declaration says |
|---|---|
| Tariffs | Concern over unilateral tariff and non-tariff measures; the US is not named |
| Sanctions | Opposes coercive measures not authorised by the UN Security Council |
| Middle East | "Deep concern", "maximum restraint"; no country named or blamed |
| Ukraine | Generic call for dialogue and diplomacy; Ukraine is not mentioned |
| Palestine | Explicit: two-state solution, 1967 borders, full UN membership, UNRWA support |
| Terrorism | Condemns the 2025 Pahalgam attack by name; "zero tolerance" |
| Currency | Local-currency settlement and payment interoperability — no common currency |
| Energy | Fossil fuels retain "an important role"; transition must be just and orderly |
| Next chair | China, in 2027, hosting the 19th summit |
Tariffs and Trade: Condemned, Unnamed
The declaration raises concern over "unilateral tariff and non-tariff measures" that distort trade, reaffirms a rules-based multilateral trading system centred on the WTO, and calls for reforms giving developing economies more influence. It separately opposes unilateral coercive measures without UN Security Council authorisation.
Nowhere does it say United States. That omission is deliberate and it is the whole story of this text. Al Jazeera's correspondent in New Delhi noted the group "steered clear" of naming countries even on tariffs — India has its own bilateral trade relationship to protect, and so does everyone else in the room. Russian President Vladimir Putin was blunter at the podium than the document was on the page, accusing countries "accustomed to thinking in colonial categories" of reaching for tariffs and sanctions to contain competitors.
The bloc also called for cooperation to protect supply chains, energy flows and maritime security — an unglamorous but practical item, given how much of the year's disruption has run through shipping lanes.
The Middle East: Consensus Through Vagueness
This was the test. Leaders expressed "deep concern over the continued escalation of tensions" and called for "maximum restraint", protection of civilians, and a settlement through dialogue. The United States, Israel, Iran and the Gulf states go unmentioned.
One passage does more work than the rest: the declaration raises concern over deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure and on peaceful nuclear facilities protected by IAEA safeguards. Read plainly, that is criticism of the strikes on Iranian nuclear sites — delivered without an accusation attached.
Former Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Menon Rao called securing a declaration at all a "significant diplomatic success", while noting that consensus survived only through carefully generalised language. Her verdict on the trade-off is the sharpest summary available: the bloc can keep difficult conversations alive and affirm broad principles, but struggles to assign responsibility when members' interests collide.
Praveen Donthi of the International Crisis Group made a similar point from the other direction — expectations had been low, and members invested in the grouping's success would be reasonably satisfied with a modest outcome. India, he said, worked behind the scenes to bring Iran and the UAE to the same text.
Ukraine, Sanctions and a Quiet Offer
On Ukraine the declaration is thinner still: a generic call for disputes to be settled through "dialogue, consultation, and diplomacy", with the war itself unnamed. What Moscow did get was the criticism of unilateral sanctions not authorised by the Security Council, and a call for such measures to be eliminated.
The more interesting development happened outside the text. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping had offered their services towards peace talks on Ukraine, and that Putin welcomed their readiness. Whether that goes anywhere is a separate question, but it is the first time both offers have been made in the same week, in the same city.
Palestine: Where the Language Sharpens
The contrast with the Middle East section is striking. On Palestine the declaration abandons hedging: firm opposition to the forced displacement of Palestinians and to attempts to alter the geography or demography of the occupied territory, a call for an end to the war in Gaza, unhindered humanitarian access, support for UNRWA, and full UN membership for Palestine. It reiterates backing for a two-state solution based on 1967 borders with occupied East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital.
The difference is simply that BRICS members broadly agree here, and do not agree on Iran. Consensus documents are precise exactly where consensus exists.
Terrorism and the Pahalgam Reference
For New Delhi, one paragraph justified a good deal of the hosting effort. The declaration specifically condemns the 2025 Pahalgam attack and reiterates zero tolerance for terrorism, including terrorist financing, safe havens and the cross-border movement of terrorists. Getting a named condemnation into a consensus text signed by China is not a small piece of drafting.
Money: Local Currencies, Not a BRICS Currency
Every BRICS summit generates headlines about dethroning the dollar, and every declaration declines to do it. This one is no exception.
What it actually backs is continued work by the BRICS Payment Task Force on interoperability between national payment and financial-messaging systems, and on settling trade and investment in local currencies. The New Development Bank is encouraged to expand local-currency financing, and a proposed New Investment Platform remains under discussion. There is no common currency and no formal de-dollarisation programme. The Financial Times noted that proposals for a sharper move away from the dollar were avoided.
This is the plumbing-not-politics version of monetary reform: slower, less quotable, and considerably more likely to produce something.
Energy, Technology, Health and Food
The working-level commitments are where India's "practical cooperation" framing shows up most clearly:
- Energy — security described as a foundation of development, with fossil fuels acknowledged to retain an important role in emerging economies' energy mix, alongside a reaffirmed commitment to a "just, orderly, equitable and inclusive" transition and the Paris Agreement.
- Technology — cooperation on artificial intelligence, digital public infrastructure, quantum technologies and research networks, plus a BRICS Incubator Network, further work on a Startup Innovation Fund, and a proposed repository of DPI solutions.
- Health — a BRICS Mission for Healthy Lifestyle with a 2026–2029 roadmap, and a network of mental-health centres of excellence coordinated by India's NIMHANS.
- Agriculture — continued work on the proposed BRICS Grain Exchange, with cooperation on food security, farm inputs and climate-resilient farming.
The Bilaterals That Mattered More
Summits are often a pretext for the meetings around them. Three stood out.
Modi and Putin met on September 11, covering trade, energy and defence, and restated the goal of taking bilateral trade to US$100 billion by 2030. Modi and Xi met on the sidelines on September 12, during Xi's first visit to India in seven years, discussing border stability, the trade imbalance, market access and transport links — widely read as a cautious attempt to steady a relationship that has been frozen for most of a decade.
And Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian met the UAE's Khaled bin Mohamed Al Nahyan on September 12, described by Reuters as the highest-level Iran–UAE contact since the 2026 war began. It happened while negotiators were still working on the declaration's Middle East language. The sequencing is unlikely to be a coincidence.
What India Got Out of Hosting
Modi told the summit BRICS had reached a "coming of age" moment and pressed the Global South to become a "rule-shaper" rather than a rule-taker, arguing for turning what he called a pyramid of privilege into a platform of partnership. He also went out of his way to insist the bloc "is not against anyone" — a line aimed at Washington as much as at the room.
That tension is the enduring one. Beijing sees BRICS as a counterweight to the United States; New Delhi prefers a bridging role, reforming institutions rather than replacing them. Writing in The Indian Express, C. Raja Mohan argued India had resisted turning the grouping into a confrontational geopolitical bloc, steering it instead towards supply chains, health, digital infrastructure and development finance. Bloomberg read the same summit as governments at odds with Washington finding common ground.
Both are true, which is rather the point. India's achievement this week was procedural rather than transformational: it produced a document where May produced none, kept Iran and the UAE inside the same consensus, and got Pahalgam named. Modest, and not nothing.
China takes the chair in 2027 and will host the 19th summit. Expect a different emphasis.
For background on the summit itself, see our BRICS Summit 2026 guide to the dates, leaders and agenda, and for wider context our look at the top 10 most powerful countries in 2026.
Compiled from the published text of the New Delhi Declaration and reporting by Reuters, the Associated Press, Al Jazeera, The Indian Express and the Financial Times up to September 14, 2026. Note that Saudi Arabia is listed as a member by Indian government and official BRICS material, but has not publicly confirmed formal accession; at this summit it was represented by Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud in the status of an invitee.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the New Delhi Declaration?
It is the consensus outcome document of the 18th BRICS Summit, adopted unanimously by all members on September 12, 2026. It runs to 140 numbered paragraphs covering global governance reform, conflicts, trade and finance, energy, technology, health and agriculture.
Did BRICS announce a common currency at the 2026 summit?
No. The declaration did not establish a common BRICS currency. It backed continued work by the BRICS Payment Task Force on making national payment and financial-messaging systems interoperable, and on settling more trade and investment in local currencies.
Did the BRICS declaration name the United States over tariffs?
No. It raised concern over unilateral tariff and non-tariff measures that distort trade and opposed sanctions imposed without UN Security Council authorisation, but it did not name the United States anywhere in that language.
What did the declaration say about the Middle East war?
Members expressed deep concern over the escalation of tensions and called for maximum restraint and protection of civilians, without naming the United States, Israel, Iran or the Gulf states. It also raised concern over attacks on civilian infrastructure and on peaceful nuclear facilities under IAEA safeguards.
Did the BRICS declaration mention the Pahalgam attack?
Yes. The declaration specifically condemned the 2025 Pahalgam attack and reiterated zero tolerance for terrorism, including terrorist financing, safe havens and the cross-border movement of terrorists.
Who hosts the next BRICS summit?
China. The declaration expressed support for China's BRICS chairship in 2027 and for the 19th BRICS Summit being held there.