Summit in Delhi | Brics alliance: China and India set the tone

Last coat of paint before the Brics summit on the paintings of the heads of state and government in Amritsar Photo: AFP/Narinder Nanu The news from the Chinese Foreign Ministry only made the rounds on Thursday: China's President Xi Jinping will also be at the Brics summit, which is taking place in the Indian capital this weekend. The fact that he actually started the journey from Beijing to Delhi is an important signal. At the previous Brics meeting in Brazil, he was represented by Prime Minister Li Qiang; He also stayed away from the G20 summit in 2023, which was also hosted by India. In general, Xi's foreign trips have become less frequent in recent times, giving each appearance more weight. It is even the first time since a bilateral meeting in southern India in 2019 that the 73-year-old Xi and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi have met in his homeland.

In his opening speech, host Modi said that the "global south" was "at the forefront of global crises" but only played a minor role in "decision-making." Modi called for this “pyramid-shaped structure to be transformed into a partnership.”

The commitment to participate illustrates China's willingness to overlook the still unresolved border dispute and other hurdles in the relationship between the two neighbors and rivals in the greater interest. The South China Morning Post reported that the Chinese summit delegation would consist of 400 members. This also speaks for Beijing's approach to underlining the importance of the event. In the seven years since Modi and Xi last had a direct exchange in India, the world has changed radically. Especially in the last six months with the global consequences of the war between the USA and Iran, which US President Donald Trump started together with Israel. On Saturday, according to the Indian news portal Firstpost, there could even be a bilateral exchange between Xi and Modi on the sidelines of the summit.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and Iranian President Massoud Peseschkian are also expected in Delhi. Iran, like Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia and Indonesia, is one of the new members of the alliance, which was expanded in 2024 and has long since expanded far beyond the four founders in 2009 (Brazil, Russia, India, China) and South Africa, which joined a year later. The heterogeneous confederation currently represents 48 percent of the world's population, especially with the two heavyweights India and China (1.4 billion people each), as well as 39 percent of global economic power - the old industrial nations of the G7 only have a measly ten and 29 percent.

No matter how different the members may be in terms of government, history, culture and strategies, bilateral trade within the federal government is growing. The most striking example is India and China: Although there is often a crunch in foreign policy between Delhi and Beijing due to the unclear border in the Himalayas and other rivalries, the exchange of goods has recently increased massively, as the Financial Times just pointed out. From a good $50 billion in 2008, it has more than tripled to $155 billion in 2025.

Overall, according to an Unctad report, the Brics internal trading volume has increased to 1.17 trillion US dollars by 2024. It is no secret that some of the old members in particular are seeking to break away from the global dollar dominance. Russia in particular now conducts 90 percent of trade with its Brics partners in national currencies, wrote the Indian magazine and news portal “Outlook,” citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

The USA and Western Europe try to portray the heterogeneous alliance as “anti-Western”. “Xi is taking advantage of Trump’s chaos and reaching out to the world,” was the headline of a comment in the German business newspaper “Handelsblatt” about three days before the start of the summit. Such fear-mongering is completely alien even to the media in the host country, which is by no means a big friend of China. »The Brics does not want to create a new world order. “It is reform-oriented in its character and pluralistic in its orientation,” said the “Indian Express” quite calmly. It's about building bridges and a stronger voice for the Global South. Now in its 18th summit, a variety of topics will be on the agenda over the two days, from energy and food security to technology and trade to sustainable development.

The »nd.Genossenschaft« belongs to the people who make it possible: our readers and authors. They are the ones who ensure left-wing journalism for everyone with their contribution: without profit maximization, media companies or tech billionaires.

→ report independently and critically → make topics visible that would otherwise go unnoticed → make voices heard that are often ignored → counter disinformation with facts → initiate and deepen left-wing debates

“Pay voluntarily” now and support the financing of our solidarity-based newspaper. So that nd remains.