BRICS Leaders Approve Joint Declaration in New Delhi as 15,000 Police Lock Down the Capital

Since Xi Jinping landed in New Delhi Friday for his first India trip in seven years, and since Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian arrived the same day, the 18th BRICS summit has now formally opened. Leaders gathered Saturday, September 12, under one of the heaviest security operations New Delhi has staged in years.

The Declaration

Sources told Reuters that BRICS negotiators worked out a joint declaration in the hours before the summit's opening session, according to The Hindu's live coverage. The text reportedly won't name any specific country but will condemn unilateral war by any nation, four sources told Reuters. Leaders were expected to formally approve it later Saturday. India's Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the document, The Hindu reported.

That language matters because BRICS now includes members on opposite sides of active shooting wars. Iran and the United Arab Emirates, both BRICS members, remain divided over the Gulf conflict between the U.S. and Iran, which resumed with tit-for-tat strikes after a pause for much of August, according to Reuters reporting carried by The Hindu. A declaration that avoids naming Washington or Tehran lets every member sign it without picking a side.

Modi's 10 Points and the Bilateral Lineup

Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented a 10-point proposal for global governance reform to the assembled leaders, The Hindu reported, though the specific contents of the plan weren't detailed in available coverage. Modi also used the sidelines to hold bilateral meetings with the prime ministers of Ethiopia, Malaysia and Vietnam, and the crown prince of the UAE, according to The Hindu.

Modi gave Russian President Vladimir Putin a Russian-language translation of the Thirukkural, the classical Tamil poetry collection, during Friday's welcome ceremony staged against a backdrop depicting the Ramanathaswamy Temple in Rameswaram, The Hindu reported. It was Putin's first trip to India since the Ukraine war began, and Modi's meeting with him came alongside a separate sit-down with Pezeshkian, per The Hindu's timeline of Friday's events.

Modi also posted a message in Sanskrit welcoming leaders that read, in translation, "One should engage in debate and friendship only with the virtuous, and nothing whatsoever with the unvirtuous," Breitbart reported. Breitbart did not specify which leaders, if any, Modi's message was aimed at.

Lockdown and Protest

Central Delhi has been converted into what The Hindu described as a fortress, with 15,000 police personnel and 200 companies of paramilitary forces deployed across the city, alongside widespread traffic restrictions, a detail Breitbart also confirmed. Dozens of Tibetans, described by Breitbart as exiles like the Dalai Lama, protested in New Delhi on Friday against Xi's visit, waving placards. The Dalai Lama has lived in India since fleeing a Chinese crackdown in 1959.

The Fault Lines Analysts Are Watching

Harsh V. Pant of India's Observer Research Foundation told Breitbart that the Gulf conflict "is going to be the central fault line this time" at the summit, adding that BRICS' expansion, once viewed as an achievement, "today looks like a big constraint on BRICS." Shilan Shah of Capital Economics told Breitbart the Iran war would provide "a stern test of the group's cohesion."

That tension is structural, not rhetorical. BRICS added Iran and the UAE as members in 2024, and Saudi Arabia has been invited to join but has not formally accepted, according to The Standard. Those three Gulf and Middle Eastern powers have sharply different stakes in a war that pits Iran against the U.S. and Israel, per Breitbart's reporting, and a declaration that refuses to name any country in that war is arguably the only formula able to hold competing interests inside the bloc together.

On the economic side, Iran is seeking to join the New Development Bank, the BRICS-founded institution that has approved 139 projects worth nearly $43 billion since 2015 but suspended new transactions in Russia after Western sanctions, according to The Standard. Pezeshkian told reporters Friday that expanding trade in national currencies among members was "one of the most important steps" the bloc could take, WVIA reported, a position consistent with the broader BRICS push toward a payment system that bypasses dollar-based banks.

Whether Saudi Arabia formally accepts its membership invitation and whether the declaration's studiously vague language on "unilateral war" survives contact with the U.S.-Iran conflict's next escalation remain open questions as the summit's second day gets underway Sunday, September 13.