"India Chairs 18th BRICS Summit Amid Expansion and Cohesion Challenges"
Strategic Autonomy
India's foreign policy doctrine of engaging multiple power centres without binding alliance commitments.
Multi-alignment
Simultaneous active participation in overlapping groupings (BRICS, G20, Quad, SCO) to maximise India's agenda-setting capacity.
BRICS began as BRIC in 2006, when foreign ministers of Brazil, Russia, India, and China held their first formal dialogue on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The first leaders' summit took place in Yekaterinburg, Russia, in 2009. South Africa joined in 2010, making it the last of the original five members to be admitted and completing the BRICS acronym. The grouping's founding premise was that the existing international order, shaped by Western-led institutions such as the IMF, the World Bank, and the UN Security Council, did not adequately represent the economic weight of large emerging economies. BRICS countries accounted for nearly 20% of world GDP in 2010, giving the grouping real economic heft.
India's engagement in BRICS has always been shaped by its doctrine of strategic autonomy: the ability to engage multiple power centres without binding alliance commitments. This posture, rooted in the Non-Aligned Movement tradition, has evolved into what analysts call multi-alignment: simultaneous, active participation in overlapping groupings including BRICS, the G20, the Quad, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). India's vision for BRICS was always reform-oriented, not revisionist. It sought a more equitable multilateral order, not the dismantling of one.
A key institutional contribution from India came at the 2012 New Delhi summit (the fourth BRICS summit), where India proposed a BRICS development bank. This became the New Development Bank (NDB), headquartered in Shanghai. The NDB is BRICS's most concrete institutional achievement and a direct alternative to Western-dominated multilateral lending. Separately, the Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA), a $100 billion currency swap pool, was established to provide short-term liquidity support to members facing balance-of-payments stress. A critical fact: the NDB was set up by BRICS, not by APEC or any other body, and its headquarters is in Shanghai, a distinction UPSC has directly tested. India also integrated a counter-terrorism architecture into BRICS's work during its early chairships.
BRICS has undergone dramatic expansion. In 2024, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE joined as full members. Indonesia became the 11th full member in January 2025, bringing the grouping to its current size. Ten additional countries hold partner-country status. This expansion has shifted BRICS from a compact economic forum into a sprawling geopolitical coalition now accounting for roughly 36.8% of global GDP (PPP), surpassing the G7.
The grouping's most significant internal tension is a fundamental disagreement over purpose. China and Russia seek to position BRICS as a counterweight to Western dominance and push for de-dollarisation: reducing reliance on the US dollar in international trade and finance. India and Brazil view BRICS as a reform-oriented economic grouping, not an anti-Western bloc. India has resisted paying for Russian oil in yuan and has pursued a framework trade agreement with the United States, illustrating that its multi-alignment has real limits. …
Consider the following statements with regard to BRICS:
I.16th BRICS Summit was held under the Chairship of Russia in Kazan.
II.Indonesia has become a full member of BRICS.
III.The theme of the 16th BRICS Summit was 'Strengthening Multiculturalism for Just Global Development and Security'.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
With reference to a grouping of countries known as BRICS, consider the following statements:
1.The First Summit of BRICS was held in Rio de Janeiro in 2009.
2.South Africa was the last to join the BRICS grouping.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Consider the following statements:
1.New Development Bank has been set up by APEC.
2.The headquarters of New Development Bank is in Shanghai.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
The 'Fortaleza Declaration', recently in the news, is related to the affairs of
Consider the following statements with regard to BRICS:
1.The first BRICS leaders' summit was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia.
2.South Africa was the last country to join the original BRICS grouping.
3.The New Development Bank was established by APEC and is headquartered in Shanghai.
4.Indonesia became the 11th full member of BRICS in January 2025.
How many of the above statements are correct?
With reference to the New Development Bank (NDB), consider the following statements:
1.It was formally established through the Fortaleza Declaration at the 6th BRICS Summit.
2.Its headquarters is located in Beijing, China.
3.The Contingent Reserve Arrangement, established alongside the NDB, is a $100 billion currency swap pool.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Match the following BRICS summits with their host locations:
List I (Summit Number) — List II (Host Location)
A.1st BRICS Summit — 1. Fortaleza, Brazil
B.4th BRICS Summit — 2. Yekaterinburg, Russia
C.6th BRICS Summit — 3. New Delhi, India
D.16th BRICS Summit — 4. Kazan, Russia
Select the correct answer using the codes given below:
Consider the following pairs — BRICS member countries and the year they joined as full members:
1.South Africa — 2010
2.Saudi Arabia — 2023
3.Indonesia — 2025
4.Iran — 2024
How many of the above pairs are correctly matched?
Which of the following best describes India's strategic posture within BRICS, as reflected in its resistance to de-dollarisation and its simultaneous engagement with the Quad and the G20?
Want the full note, Prelims Facts & MCQ answers?
Create a free account — takes less than a minute.
Create free account