Cementing BRICS: The Global South Opportunity After New Delhi

The 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi has consolidated rather than transformed the grouping. Meeting on the twentieth anniversary of BRICS, the expanded membership faced the difficult task of maintaining cohesion among countries with very different political and economic interests. The New Delhi Declaration therefore avoids grand institutional ruptures. Its emphasis is on practical cooperation, voluntary mechanisms and incremental reform. Yet, beneath the cautious language lies an important opportunity: BRICS is becoming a more consequential platform through which the Global South can shape the rules, technologies and institutions that will determine its next phase of development. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his inaugural speech: If our future is shared, then the right to shape that future must also be shared.

The most important political message is that multipolarity can create opportunities for emerging and developing countries. The Declaration explicitly identifies the Global South as a driver of positive change and commits BRICS to give Emerging Markets and Developing Countries (EMDEs) a greater voice in global governance. This is particularly significant at a time when developing countries face geopolitical fragmentation, protectionism, technological disruption and climate pressures.

Economically, the opportunity is less about creating a separate BRICS economic order than about giving developing countries more choices within the existing one. BRICS calls for reform of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organization (WTO) so that representation better reflects the changing weight of EMDEs. It also opposes unilateral tariffs and sanctions and supports the restoration of an effective WTO dispute-settlement system. Support for Ethiopia and Iran’s WTO accession is particularly relevant to integrating developing economies into global trade.

Moving From Declarations To Business Opportunities

The real economic potential, however, lies in moving from declarations to business opportunities. The summit places considerable emphasis on resilient global value chains and on enabling developing countries to move into higher-value manufacturing. The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are identified as a particular bottleneck, with the Jaipur Consensus proposing a study of an invoice-discounting mechanism to unlock working capital and enable smaller firms to participate in international trade. Cooperation on Special Economic Zones, digitised trade documentation and industrial capabilities could similarly help developing countries integrate more deeply into BRICS and global value chains.

Finance remains deliberately incremental. There are no BRICS currency and no commitment to abandon the dollar. Instead, the Payment Task Force is working on interoperability of payment and messaging systems and greater use of local currencies. The proposed BRICS Risk Lab at GIFT City, the New Investment Platform study group and, particularly, the BRICS Multilateral Guarantees initiative could eventually be more consequential. Guarantees that mobilise private capital and reduce the cost of development finance address one of the Global South’s central problems: not simply the shortage of capital, but the shortage of affordable, de-risked capital.

Technology may prove the most promising new frontier. The Declaration speaks explicitly of a “sovereign and self-reliant digital ecosystem”, while promoting digital public infrastructure, interoperable supply-chain standards, quantum technologies, submarine cables and cooperation on artificial intelligence (AI) governance. These are not merely technological issues. For the Global South, control over digital infrastructure, data, AI capabilities and critical supply chains is increasingly a condition of economic sovereignty.

Modi has suggested that BRICS must build continuity among Chairs by instituting a G20-style troika and a digitally supported establishment of a BRICS Continuity and Implementation Mechanism.

India’s chairship has consequently helped shift BRICS towards a development-oriented agenda encompassing startups, MSMEs, Industry 4.0, quantum technology, critical minerals, energy and digital infrastructure. The BRICS Incubator Network and the proposed Startup Innovation Fund could become particularly useful if they evolve from dialogue platforms into mechanisms for cross-border investment and technology partnerships.

Modi said: “The Global South is today in the front row of global crises, but in the back row of decision-making. We must transform this “pyramid of privilege” into a “platform of partnership”, where every country has a voice, every member has a stake and the advancement of humanity remains at the heart of every endeavour.

With this objective, I propose that we work together to formulate 10 proposals for global governance reform, which we could seek to develop into a BRICS Reform Roadmap by the next summit. In preparing this roadmap, we must keep three key aspects in mind: representation, responsiveness and rule-making. This is an important initiative.

Building Options

The limitation is equally clear. Much of the Declaration uses the language of “encourage”, “welcome” and “explore”; many initiatives remain voluntary or at the study-group stage. BRICS has therefore not created an alternative global economic system in New Delhi. Its achievement is subtle: it is to build options. For the Global South, that may ultimately be more valuable than a dramatic institutional break. A larger choice of partners, sources of finance, technologies, markets and development pathways could emerge. The test now is whether the institutional architecture painstakingly assembled in New Delhi can be converted into actual trade, investment and technology flows before China assumes the chair in 2027.

(The author is a former ambassador and author of The Durian Flavour)

(Views expressed are personal)