The money tells the story first. BRICS now represents roughly 49.5% of the world’s population, 40% of global GDP and 26% of global trade, a concentration of economic weight that the grouping’s 11 members gathered to organise at the 18th Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi from 11 to 13 September under India’s chairmanship. The summit’s chosen theme, “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation, and Sustainability,” signalled an ambition to convert that scale into usable market power, particularly in trade settlement, development lending and cross-border payments.
The financial machinery at the centre of that ambition is the New Development Bank and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement, both signed into treaty in 2014 and active since 2015. The NDB, operated by the five founding BRICS states and open to contributions from non-members, began with $50 billion in capital, built from initial contributions of $10 billion each by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and has since doubled to $100 billion. Its authorised lending reaches up to $34 billion annually, directed primarily at infrastructure. By 2020 the bank had 53 projects underway worth around $15 billion; by 2025 it had approved more than $32 billion across 96 projects. In 2021, Bangladesh, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Uruguay joined as members, broadening the shareholder base beyond the founders. South Africa hosts the bank’s African headquarters, a foothold that matters for the continent’s financing access.
The New Delhi Declaration, adopted by the leaders, backed greater use of local currencies in trade and stronger cross-border payment systems, alongside cooperation on food security, energy, digital infrastructure, artificial intelligence and climate action. Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors went further, calling for reform of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to give emerging market economies a stronger voice. “We will continue to strengthen coordination among BRICS members to make international financial institutions more representative, transparent and accountable,” the officials said in a joint statement, adding that with the growing share of emerging market and developing economies in global output, reform of global economic governance remains a consistent BRICS priority. The statement also flagged serious concerns over unilateral trade and finance-related actions, including tariffs and non-tariff measures deemed inconsistent with World Trade Organisation rules, and encouraged the BRICS Payment Task Force to keep working toward cross-border payments that are fast, low-cost, accessible, efficient, transparent and safe. India, for its part, will push for progress on linking digital currencies across member countries.
Ownership of the grouping’s economic weight is heavily skewed. China accounts for about 70% of the organisation’s total GDP, which shapes both the potential and the limits of collective action. Some analysts argue that BRICS’s enormous economic weight is not matched by an ability to wield it collectively, and that its success should be judged by whether it can use natural resources to raise regional trade, production and distribution across the Global South. Scholars note the group emerged after the 2008 financial collapse and the failure of the WTO’s Doha Round, and most believe BRICS seeks reform and greater autonomy rather than overthrow of the liberal international order.
India’s own leverage underpinned its presidency. Its total exports in financial year 2024-25 amounted to approximately $825 billion, with services accounting for an estimated $387 billion, figures few developing countries can match. That position is reinforced by a large domestic market, an expanding digital economy and its role as a major provider of digital public infrastructure.
For Africa’s three full members, the economics are shifting from diplomacy to strategy. South Africa, a member since 2010 after a formal invitation from China backed by India and Russia, joined by Ethiopia and Egypt in 2024, is positioning as a leading African voice for the Global South while maintaining ties with competing Western powers. Presidents Ramaphosa, Abiy Ahmed and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi discussed strengthening the partnership across economics, finance, politics and security, and voiced support for India’s hosting of the summit and its shaping of a South-South alliance.
Meanwhile, the wider regional picture reinforces the capital realignment. China’s trade with the five Central Asian states surpassed $70 billion in 2022, $90 billion in 2023 and $106 billion in 2025, according to the Caspian Policy Centre, deepening Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan’s dependence on Chinese markets and, per a Eurasianet assessment, challenging Russia’s hold on the region’s arms market. Those governments have also met with the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union on trade, energy and defence, securing tens of millions of dollars in assistance aimed largely at economic development.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned at the summit that rising conflicts were having a far-reaching impact on ordinary people, and insisted BRICS is “not anti-Western but simply non-Western.” With the chairmanship passing to China for 2027, the test ahead is whether declarations can translate into funding, production capacity and functioning payment rails.