India officially becomes BRICS Chair

From 1 January 2026, the BRICS chairmanship officially passes from Brazil to India. For the first time, India, one of the founding members of the group, will lead the expanded format, which now includes 10 countries.

The key priorities of India’s chairmanship have already been formulated and are centred on rethinking the BRICS concept to “strengthen resilience and foster innovation for cooperation and development”, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the BRICS 2025 Summit in Rio de Janeiro in July. His remarks were published on the website of the Ministry of External Affairs of India.

"Under India’s BRICS chairmanship next year, we will continue to work closely on all key issues. Our goal will be to redefine BRICS as Building Resilience and Innovation for Cooperation and Sustainability. Just as we brought inclusivity to our G‑20 Presidency and placed the concerns of the Global South at the forefront of the agenda, similarly, during our Presidency of BRICS, we will advance this forum with a people-centric approach and the spirit of ‘Humanity First'"

Narendra Modi Indian Prime Minister

Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko has congratulated Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his country's assumption of the BRICS presidency, the press service of the President of the Republic of Belarus reported.

The head of state expressed confidence that the Indian presidency will be a period of new successes for the grouping. He also thanked India for its support in getting Belarus the status of a partner country of the group.

Aleksander Lukashenko affirmed Belarus' readiness to actively work under the Indian presidency and noted "We are ready for fruitful work under the Indian presidency for the successful construction of a just and multipolar world order," the president noted.

Experts note that India has inherited a solid foundation from Brazil. Professor at the Institute of Economics of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Daniel Barreiros said that the country has “received a strategically orientated partnership with established mechanisms and a renewed purpose”. He also noted that a distinctive feature of India’s approach would be its technological vision. This path will make it possible to strengthen the group’s influence by focusing on less contentious but strategically important areas of cooperation.

“The work will be structured around four pillars: resilience, innovation, cooperation, and environmental stability. A flagship initiative will be the promotion of digital public infrastructure as a scalable development model for the Global South, based on India’s successful experience. The goal is not to export a ready-made system but to promote an open-architecture model that countries can adapt to their specific needs, positioning India as a technological leader for the Global South. A critically important priority will be the consolidation of the expanded BRICS format through cooperation in less contentious but strategic areas such as AI governance and digital trade,” he added in an exclusive comment to TV BRICS.

Reform of global governance remains at the core of the agenda. In a joint communiqué, BRICS foreign ministers called for reform of the United Nations (UN) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO), stressing the need for “greater and more meaningful representation of developing countries”.

Earlier, Brazil formally handed over the BRICS chairmanship to India during a meeting of the group’s sherpas. The symbolic act was the transfer of a gavel made from recycled Amazonian wood, underscoring the environmental agenda of Brazil’s chairmanship and continuity within the group.

India will host the 18th BRICS Summit in 2026.

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