BRICS is no longer just a slogan

The New Delhi summit showed the group is becoming more practical: from trade and payment systems to transport and strategic autonomy The 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi took place at a moment when the group is clearly outgrowing its original format as a club of several major emerging economies and gradually becoming a platform capable of shaping debates over global trade, international finance and the political architecture of the world order.

The countries gathered around the same table have very different relations with the West, compete with one another in a number of areas and yet increasingly share an interest in expanding their strategic autonomy.

For Russia, this is especially important, because BRICS gives Moscow an opportunity to deepen economic ties with the largest non-Western powers, develop settlement mechanisms less vulnerable to sanctions and demonstrate that attempts to politically isolate the country have not kept it from engaging in high-level international diplomacy.

It was against this backdrop that Russian President Vladimir Putin articulated Moscow’s interpretation of the changes now taking place in the global system, saying in New Delhi that the world is undergoing “profound, fundamental shifts” as new centers of economic growth increasingly replace the old ones.

According to the Russian president, BRICS countries have accounted for more than 40 percent of global GDP growth over the past five years, compared with around 29 percent for the G7, a trend Moscow sees as evidence that the redistribution of economic power is already taking place regardless of political declarations.

Putin went further by describing BRICS as a “new and sustainable platform for global growth” , while stressing that the rules governing such a system should not be imposed on its participants from outside.

For Russia, this principle is central to the entire concept of a multipolar order.

Only a few years ago, discussions about BRICS were often dominated by symbolism and general calls for reform of the global order, whereas the agenda today increasingly revolves around payment systems, national currencies, transport corridors, technology, the New Development Bank and more resilient industrial supply chains.

Multipolarity is only strategically meaningful for Moscow when it is supported by practical alternatives in trade, finance, logistics and investment.

Read more BRICS 2026: India charts its own course between Russia and the West Russia and India are building bridges and roads The most important bilateral meeting for Vladimir Putin in New Delhi was his discussion with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which covered politics, trade, defense, energy, space cooperation, labor mobility and broader humanitarian ties.