BRICS meets in India: What’s on the agenda, why it matters

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is hosting the annual BRICS Summit beginning today in the Indian capital, New Delhi, which has been decked out in BRICS-themed signs and illuminated buildings and roundabouts.

More than a dozen world leaders are attending the 18th annual summit of the bloc, which is increasingly viewed as a counterweight to economic alliances dominated by wealthier Western nations.

In preparation, some 30,000 additional security personnel have been deployed while streets around hotels the dignitaries are staying at have been closed off to traffic.

Leaders including Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrived in New Delhi on Friday to hold early bilateral meetings with India’s Modi.

China’s President Xi Jinping, who is visiting India after seven years, arrives this morning.

This year’s two-day summit, which takes place on September 12 and 13, comes at a time of global upheaval with the United States and Israel’s war on Iran, Russia’s war on Ukraine and global energy markets in chaos.

But the bloc also faces internal challenges as differences between BRICS members over the US-Israeli war on Iran, ongoing clashes between Saudi Arabia and the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, and border disputes between India and China gather pace.

So how will the bloc overcome its differences this year, and what is on the summit’s agenda?