New Delhi: The ‘New Delhi Declaration’ adopted by the BRICS member countries commended India for hosting the Outreach/BRICS Plus Dialogue segment of the 18th BRICS Summit, asserting that India’s chairship has injected “new impetus” to strengthen international cooperation and solidarity.
The leaders of BRICS countries, who met for the 18th BRICS Summit held under the theme of ‘Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability’, reaffirmed their commitment to the BRICS spirit of mutual respect and understanding, sovereign equality, solidarity, democracy, openness, inclusiveness, collaboration and consensus.
“We commend the significant progress achieved under India’s BRICS Chairship in 2026, under the theme ‘Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability’, which reflects our shared commitment to strengthening BRICS cooperation in addressing common challenges with a balanced, practical, actionable, inclusive, development-oriented and people-centered approach. We reaffirm our commitment to advancing cooperation on thematic priorities, particularly through strengthening capacities, promoting innovation, and advancing sustainable development and resilience,” the Declaration mentioned.
“We welcome the convening of over four hundred meetings and engagements at the level of Ministers, Parliamentarians, Heads of Agencies, Officials, Experts, Businesses and People in thirty cities across India under the BRICS cooperation framework, which have contributed to strengthening the BRICS strategic partnership. We welcome the progress made in enhancing collective resilience, promoting innovation-driven economic growth, advancing sustainable development, deepening people-to-people exchanges, and amplifying the voice of BRICS for greater representation in global governance,” it added.
The New Delhi Declaration highlighted that, building on two decades of BRICS, the member countries further commit themselves to strengthening cooperation in the expanded BRICS under the three pillars of political and security, economic and financial, cultural and people-to-people cooperation, and to enhancing our strategic partnership for the benefit of our people through the promotion of peace, a more representative, fairer international order, a reinvigorated and reformed multilateral system, sustainable development and inclusive growth.
BRICS countries reaching consensus on a Joint Statement on the very first day of the summit being hosted by India at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi has been labelled as a “major diplomatic breakthrough” considering the sharply divergent geopolitical positions among various countries.
According to sources, India led sustained consultations and intensive negotiations from Friday till as late as 4 AM Saturday, making efforts to bridge competing positions and build consensus among members.
“We recognise the valuable contribution of Partner countries to BRICS cooperation. We underscore our strong belief that advancing the BRICS partnership with Emerging Markets and Developing Countries (EMDCs) will further contribute to strengthening the spirit of solidarity and international cooperation for the benefit of all. We reaffirm our commitment to fostering inclusive, mutually beneficial and development-oriented partnership with Partner countries. We encourage their increasing participation in BRICS engagements and practical cooperation in areas of shared interest,” the Declaration stated further.
(IANS)
