BRICS Illustration: Xia Qing/GT

The 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi provided a convincing response to those who have repeatedly predicted the group's decline. BRICS remains firmly on its path. It has broadened its geographical representation, enlarged its agenda and become an increasingly important expression of the collective rise of the Global South. The summit also showed that diversity does not necessarily prevent agreement. If managed with political maturity, it can become a source of legitimacy in the construction of a more plural international order. 

The New Delhi meeting was particularly important because it prepared the ground for the BRICS' third decade. Enlargement has increased its political weight, but size alone does not produce influence. The immediate challenge is to transform this expanded presence into development capacity and concrete results. Chinese President Xi Jinping addressed that challenge through five initiatives covering AI, trade and investment, digital industries, intelligent manufacturing, and scientific and technological talent. 

These initiatives matter because they address a structural problem. A multipolar political order cannot be sustained while technological, educational and industrial inequalities continue to divide the international system. Many developing countries still enter the world economy as commodity exporters and technology importers, and they often receive rules and standards formulated without their meaningful participation. BRICS can help change this position by creating the conditions for its members and partners to produce technology, add value to their economies and participate in setting international standards.

The proposed partnership among special economic zones deserves particular attention. China's experience demonstrates that these zones should not be understood merely as territories offering tax advantages. They can serve as laboratories for industrial policy, digital regulation, logistical innovation and international cooperation. Connecting zones with different economic profiles could encourage cross-border production chains in renewable energy, pharmaceuticals, electric vehicles, AI and other strategic sectors. 

Such cooperation should not be limited to large corporations. Small and medium-sized enterprises also need access to financing, digital payment systems and markets across BRICS economies.

The meeting between President Xi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was another significant outcome of the summit. Their recognition that "China and India should be partners" has consequences extending far beyond bilateral relations. China and India are ancient civilizations, major developing countries and indispensable participants in the emergence of a multipolar world. Their differences will not disappear, but those differences do not have to determine the whole relationship. 

BRICS offers Beijing and New Delhi a permanent forum in which cooperation can gradually strengthen confidence. 

India's presidency in 2026, followed by China's in 2027, provides an unusual opportunity to maintain continuity between two successive summits. Close coordination between the two countries would demonstrate that leadership in the Global South can be exercised through coexistence, mutual respect and shared responsibility.

The Chinese presidency next year should build on the progress achieved in New Delhi. The declaration adopted at the summit contains an extensive agenda whose implementation will require greater coordination. As BRICS becomes larger and more complex, its institutional structure must also evolve. 

I have therefore argued that the group should consider establishing a permanent administrative secretariat. This would not transform BRICS into a rigid international organization, nor should it compromise the flexibility that has served the mechanism well. Enlargement has strengthened the political influence of BRICS. It must now be accompanied by the institutional capacity required to sustain that influence.

Geopolitical tensions are intensifying, armed conflicts are multiplying and BRICS itself brings together countries with different strategic interests, legal systems and cultural traditions. Under such conditions, mediation is not peripheral to the BRICS agenda. It is an indispensable diplomatic instrument. The group should explore formal engagement with the International Organization for Mediation, the world's first intergovernmental international legal organization dedicated to resolving international disputes through mediation.

The New Delhi Summit confirmed that BRICS has neither lost direction nor exhausted its purpose. The task before China is to carry this confidence into the group's third decade through better coordination, functioning institutions and initiatives whose results can be seen beyond summit declarations.

The author is a professor of international law at the Federal Fluminense University in Rio de Janeiro and Wutong chair professor at the Beijing Language and Culture University. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn