BRICS close with New Delhi Declaration, Modi and Xi meet on the sidelines

The 18th BRICS summit closed in New Delhi with the acceptance, by all members, of the New Delhi Declaration. The date is September 12, 2026. This is the institutional fact of the day, and it is also the only one our material documents clearly: the document was accepted by all participants.

On the same day, on the sidelines of the proceedings, Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping met. According to the account made public by the Press Information Bureau of the Indian government and that of the Indian outlet NDV Today, the two discussed the situation along the border, trade, supply chains and the mobility of people. The two governments indicated peace and stability in the border areas as a premise for the development of bilateral relations.

What the material says, and where it comes from

A methodological clarification is needed here, because it changes the weight of what one reads. The two sources we have are independent of each other — one is a government statement, the other is a journalistic account that also cites a briefing by the Indian foreign ministry — but both belong to the same side of the table. Of the Modi-Xi talks we have, in today’s material, no Chinese version whatsoever: neither a statement from Beijing nor an account from the Chinese press. What we are reporting is therefore the Indian reconstruction of the meeting, not a shared reconstruction.

The difference is not academic. In bilateral talks between major countries, the choice of what to put in the account — and in what order — is itself a negotiating position. A list of topics that starts with the border and ends with the mobility of people says which files one of the two parties wants to see associated with its own name; it does not say what the other party actually replied on each of them.

Trade is the explicit chapter

The Indian account cites three concrete items on the economic side: structural trade imbalances, supply chains, market access. These are compact formulas, and the material contains neither figures nor commitments. The summit document — the New Delhi Declaration — is stated to have been accepted by all members, but the text is not among the sources we were able to read: we are therefore unable to say what it contains on trade, currencies, expansion or financial institutions. Anyone looking here for a list of intentions will not find one, because we do not have one.

One figure, however, does exist, and it concerns the year of India’s presidency: during that period more than 350 BRICS meetings were held, according to the Indian foreign ministry as reported by NDV Today. This is a measure of bureaucratic activity, not of results — it says how much the machinery was kept running, not what came out of it — but it is useful as a reminder that a two-day summit is the visible part of a much longer calendar.

Of the Modi-Xi talks there exists, in today’s material, only one national perspective: the Indian one.

What we do not know

We do not know the content of the New Delhi Declaration. We do not know whether the Modi-Xi meeting produced dated commitments, and on which files. We do not know whether a Chinese version of the meeting exists that describes the same topics with a different order or emphasis: if one appears, and diverges, we will write about it citing both sources, as we do with balance sheets that change.

Finally, we do not know which members were represented and at what level: the material speaks of “all members” with reference to the acceptance of the document, and does not contain the list of delegations.

Why we are covering this

Because two of the most populous countries on the planet discussed the border and supply chains on the same day that a group including both of them released a joint text. The joining of the multilateral and bilateral channels is the political fact; its substance will be measured against the items the Indian account lists — trade imbalances, supply, market access — once each has figures and deadlines attached. Today it does not.