The BRICS Balancing Act

India’s 2026 chairmanship of the summit must keep an expanded grouping focused on Global South cooperation without burning Western bridges

As New Delhi prepares to host the 18th BRICS Summit at Bharat Mandapam, the global order sits at a precarious crossroads. What began two decades ago as an economic acronym for high-growth emerging markets has morphed into an expanded, multi-continental bloc representing nearly half the world’s population. For India, taking the helm as BRICS Chair in 2026 is both an immense geopolitical opportunity and a formidable diplomatic trial. Stepping into this role requires navigating an intricate tightrope—preserving its cherished strategic autonomy while ensuring the enlarged grouping remains a constructive instrument for the Global South rather than descending into an anti-Western instrument directed by single-power hegemonies.

Strategic Autonomy 

The expansion of BRICS to incorporate various economies from the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia has changed how the organization operates. Some member countries perceive the mechanism mostly as a counterforce to the West-led multilateral system and a place to express their complaints against the Global North. In contrast, India approaches its participation with a fundamentally non-aligned perspective due to its strategic autonomy doctrine, which implies that India does not have to pick between the West-influenced alliances such as Quad and the partnerships it established within the Global South.

Guiding an expanded BRICS demands that India actively resist attempts to frame the bloc as an ideological battleground. By asserting that BRICS is “non-Western” rather than “anti-Western,” New Delhi creates space to pursue pragmatic cooperation without alienating crucial partners in Washington, London, or Brussels. The summit provides India with the stage to demonstrate that constructive diplomacy can bridge geopolitical divides.

The issue of de-dollarization is one of the hotly debated topics within the expanded alliance. The rise in sanctions and the use of the Western financial clearing systems has pushed some member nations to favour the adoption of a unified BRICS currency. Yet, India has its unique position.

The Indian government fully understands the perils of one-currency reliance but has no intention to engage in currency wars that could disrupt the global economy or impact its own economic interests. A common BRICS currency is neither a macroeconomic reality nor an objective of the Indian monetary policy due to the significant differences in capital controls, monetary policies and geopolitical goals of all the members. The Indian government is focused on mitigation of risks rather than the ideology of economic warfare. New Delhi wants to follow the strategy that combines close interaction with the international financial system with the careful separation of bilateral trade from foreign financial sanctions and currency fluctuation risks.

India is now focusing on practical digital financial integration instead of pursuing visionary monetary unions. The key to this approach is to set up local-currency payment systems for cross-border transactions. India’s success with the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) provides a solid example of how scalable cross-border transaction systems can be created.

With the creation of digital platforms that connect transactions in local currencies, India provides BRICS countries with a reasonable way to decrease their transaction expenses and lower the risks tied to currency fluctuations. Such an approach enables emerging economies to satisfy their real economic needs while not forcing them to abandon existing global financial practices altogether. The interaction of individual countries allows them to settle their transactions domestically while still controlling their monetary policies at the same time.

Reformed Multilateralism

The essence of India’s chairmanship in BRICS can be traced to its emphasis on reformed multilateralism. The fact that bodies such as the UN Security Council, IMF, and World Bank have not adapted to the present-day geopolitical and economic realities is almost traditional now. The emerging economies have played a major role in promoting the development process unless one considers the fact these economies are not represented sufficiently in the organizations responsible for making crucial decisions.

India opted for BRICS as the main tool for the fight for reforming the global institutions and for the sake of giving voice to the Global South. However, seeking for reform implies that a clear division should be made between constructive reform and construction interference. India’s mission ensures that BRICS serves the purpose of enabling inclusive governance rather than parallel exclusionist governance. The focus on significant problems like fair funding, climate adaptation, supply chain support, and digital public infrastructure illustrates how India is committed to finding a way out for the developing economies.

A broader BRICS risk becoming susceptible to the strategic ambitions of dominant individual states seeking to convert the forum into a vehicle for unilateral influence. India’s leadership is essential to maintaining the consensus-driven, multi-polar essence of the group. New Delhi’s insistence on consensus ensures that the priorities of smaller and emerging member nations are respected, preventing the agenda from being co-opted by single-power narratives.

India’s steady presence acts as a balancing force within the summit hall. By upholding the principle that BRICS must remain an open, inclusive coalition for development, New Delhi safeguards the group’s credibility as a genuine representative of global pluralism. The summit in New Delhi is a test of whether an expanded grouping can maintain internal equilibrium while delivering meaningful outcomes for its members.

When world leaders gather at Bharat Mandapam, the eyes of both the Global South and the West will be on India. By championing local-currency payment rails, promoting reformed multilateralism, and resisting ideological polarization, India can demonstrate that strategic autonomy is not merely a defensive posture, but a proactive framework for global leadership.

Guiding BRICS along this pragmatic middle path reinforces India’s role as a bridge between dividing geopolitical blocs. In doing so, New Delhi can ensure that an expanded BRICS remains true to its core mission: giving voice, agency and sustainable development opportunities to the Global South in an increasingly uncertain world.

(The writer is a policy analyst with special focus on the Northeast and the Indo-pacific. Views personal.)