External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has set out India’s priorities for its BRICS 2026 chairship.
These are resilience, innovation, cooperation and sustainability.
India’s approach is described as humanity-first and people-centric.
The priorities span BRICS’s political, economic and cultural pillars.
India’s chairship theme reflects these four priorities.
Jaishankar said India is approaching its BRICS chairship with a humanity-first, people-centric approach.
India’s chairship theme is ‘Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability’.
The theme reflects India’s stated belief that cooperation among BRICS members can help address shared challenges in a balanced and inclusive manner.
BRICS is a grouping of major emerging economies that has expanded in membership in recent years.
India previously launched the logo, theme and website for its BRICS chairship earlier in 2026.
India’s chairship responsibilities include hosting a series of ministerial meetings and a leaders’ summit during its term.
BRICS originally comprised Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa before expanding its membership further.
India has held the BRICS chairship on a previous occasion, hosting a summit in earlier years.
The rotating chairship model gives each member country an opportunity to shape the grouping’s annual agenda and priorities.
Foreign ministers of BRICS countries typically meet on the sidelines of major multilateral gatherings during a chairship year.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar outlined four broad priorities for India’s BRICS 2026 Chairship.
The priorities are resilience, innovation, cooperation and sustainability.
They are meant to provide a coherent framework across BRICS’s three foundational pillars: political and security, economic and financial, and cultural and people-to-people exchanges.
Resilience focuses on strengthening institutions to withstand global shocks in areas such as agriculture, health, energy, disaster management and supply chains.
Innovation focuses on leveraging new technologies and promoting start-ups and MSMEs to drive inclusive economic development.
Cooperation focuses on deepening political, economic and cultural collaboration, including people-to-people exchanges.
India at a BRICS summit (representative image), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
