BRICS Summit 2026 LIVE updates: India focused on four pillars: resilience, innovation, cooperation, sustainability, says PM Modi - The Hindu

**BRICS Summit 2026 – New Delhi, India** The 2026 BRICS summit opened at the newly built Bharat Mandapam with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi outlining India’s agenda around four strategic pillars: resilience, innovation, cooperation and sustainability. In his opening address, Modi urged member states to deepen economic ties, accelerate clean‑technology collaborations and bolster supply‑chain robustness in the face of global shocks. He highlighted India’s own progress in renewable energy, digital infrastructure and climate‑resilient agriculture as a template for collective action.

Day two of the summit saw a high‑profile family photograph featuring Modi alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and leaders from Brazil, South Africa and other member nations. The image, captured at the Bharat Mandapam’s grand hall, underscored the bloc’s emphasis on unity amid geopolitical turbulence. Later, the leaders adopted the “New Delhi Declaration,” which reaffirmed commitment to multilateral cooperation, pledged to expand intra‑BRICS trade, and called for “restraint and dialogue” in the Gulf region while deliberately omitting any reference to the conflict in Ukraine.

The massive influx of VVIP delegations disrupted the city’s daily rhythms, with local auto‑rickshaw drivers and delivery workers reporting significant earnings losses due to road closures and security cordons. Transport unions in Delhi warned that the summit’s logistical demands, while symbolically important, strained the city’s already fragile informal‑sector workforce. Meanwhile, the diplomatic language of the declaration—emphasising restraint in the Gulf and remaining silent on Ukraine—reflected the bloc’s attempt to balance divergent national interests while presenting a unified front on global governance issues.