The leaders of an expanded BRICS group are gathering in New Delhi for a summit on 12 and 13 September, bringing South Africa, Egypt and Ethiopia to the table as full African members. Arrivals began on Friday, 11 September, ahead of the formal programme. The important distinction at this stage is timing: the meeting is about to begin, but no summit declaration, financing package or joint African position has yet been adopted.
India is hosting the 18th BRICS Summit under a chairship framed around resilience, innovation, cooperation and sustainability. The programme includes discussions on trade and investment, financial and institutional cooperation, development, supply chains and reform of the United Nations and international financial institutions. Leaders are expected to conclude with a New Delhi Declaration, but its language and commitments remain matters for negotiation.
BRICS now has 11 full members: Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates. The group represents a far larger population and resource base than the original five-country formation, but expansion also puts more competing interests inside the same room. Membership creates access to the conversation; it does not automatically create agreement.
South Africa has published the clearest African agenda for the summit. The Presidency says Cyril Ramaphosa will press for more trade and investment within BRICS, industrialisation and value addition, and investment in African infrastructure aligned with the African Continental Free Trade Area. He is also due to take part in the BRICS Business Forum dialogue on trade, agriculture, supply chains, women-led development, the digital economy and innovation.
Those objectives matter because African economies often enter global trade as suppliers of raw materials and buyers of higher-value finished goods. Pretoria’s language about value addition is therefore more than a slogan: the test is whether summit diplomacy produces investable projects, manufacturing capacity, useful technology partnerships and transport or energy links that support trade within Africa. None of those results should be claimed before contracts, financing and delivery terms are public.
Egypt and Ethiopia give Africa two additional full-member seats, while invited and partner countries broaden the continent’s presence around the summit. Egypt’s presidency said Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was travelling to New Delhi and would address both a closed leaders’ session and an expanded meeting. Ethiopia’s foreign minister arrived ahead of the summit, according to Indian arrival reporting. Attendance, however, should not be mistaken for a single African negotiating bloc: the three governments have different economic structures, security interests and regional priorities.
The wider grouping also arrives with difficult political contradictions. The Associated Press reports that wars involving Russia and Iran, along with United States–China tensions, will test BRICS unity. The membership includes states with competing regional ambitions and different relationships with Western powers. India itself is trying to preserve close ties with Russia while deepening partnerships with the United States and managing its rivalry with China.
Reducing exposure to the United States dollar is another recurring BRICS ambition. Members have discussed greater use of local currencies and payment systems that do not rely as heavily on Western financial infrastructure. For African businesses, cheaper and more predictable cross-border settlement could matter, but the bloc’s currencies, capital controls and financial systems differ. A summit statement is not the same thing as a functioning common payment network or a replacement for the dollar.
African readers should therefore judge New Delhi by concrete outcomes rather than the size of the gathering. Useful measures would have identifiable funding, institutions responsible for delivery, transparent eligibility rules and dates that allow governments, firms and citizens to test progress. Language about the Global South or reform of world institutions matters politically, but it becomes economically meaningful only when members can agree on mechanisms.
The immediate facts to watch are the New Delhi Declaration, any investment or infrastructure announcements, the treatment of current wars and whether members define practical steps on trade, payments and institutional reform. Until the summit closes, the responsible account is that Africa has three full-member seats and declared ambitions—alongside a bloc whose internal divisions remain visible. Outcomes will need to be reported after they occur, not predicted from the arrivals.
