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The New Delhi Declaration: Strengthening Global Connectivity, Trade, and Security

The New Delhi Declaration: Strengthening Global Connectivity, Trade, and Security

by | Sep 18, 2026 | BLOG, In the news

New Delhi, 18 September 2026
By Anjali Batra

The XVIIIth BRICS Summit wrapped up on 13 September with the New Delhi Declaration, themed “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability.” BRICS began as BRIC, a Goldman Sachs acronym in 2001 and became a diplomatic platform at the first summit in Yekaterinburg in 2009. It now counts eleven members: the founding five (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), followed by Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia. Ten additional countries, including Nigeria, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, and Malaysia, attended as partner countries.

Twenty Years On: The Growth of the Bloc

BRICS turned twenty this year. By IMF estimates, the bloc now commands roughly 39.8% of global GDP in purchasing-power terms against the G7’s 27.9%, accounts for about a quarter of global trade, and represents close to half of humanity. The Declaration’s language on UN reform, IMF quota realignment and WTO revival reflected a strong rhetoric as the Global South is actively laying the groundwork to build a distinct class of decision-makers.

Over the past two decades, BRICS has evolved through clear phases:

  • 2006: Officially formalized as a diplomatic and geopolitical entity on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
  • 2009: Transitioned from ministerial-level dialogues into a formal summit-level platform when the inaugural summit was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia, operating as a high-level diplomatic forum.
  • 2014: Shifted to institution-building with the creation of the New Development Bank and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement.
  • 2023-2025: Focused on expansion.
  • 2026 (Under India’s Chairship): Evolved into a delivery-focused bloc, marked by more than four hundred meetings across thirty Indian cities and dedicated working groups.

The Submarine Cable Is the New Battleship

The Declaration officially recognised submarine cable infrastructure as an important foundation for international connectivity and network resilience. The Declaration and a dedicated Task Force concluded a “BRICS Cable Requirements: Directive Brief” and member states agreed to pursue a Technical and Economic Feasibility Study for a high-speed BRICS submarine cable network. 

This initiative is vital because roughly 99% of the world’s intercontinental data travels along about 550–570 active undersea cables protected primarily by international law. In 2024, accidents and damage in the Red Sea snapped multiple cables simultaneously, disrupting traffic between Asia and Europe. This exceptionally rare incident knocked out approximately 25% of Asia-Europe-Middle East traffic and visibly degraded internet service in India. With tech giants like Google, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft now commanding an estimated 75% of international subsea bandwidth (up from under 10% in 2010), a BRICS cable would serve as a strategic safeguard and offer sovereign fiber insurance and seabed security as shared responsibility, where cloud infrastructure is concentrated among major technology providers.

Cybersecurity and Financial Defenses

The bloc emphasized a ‘sovereign and self-reliant digital ecosystem’, to combat cybercrime, malicious software and deepfakes while urging members to ratify the UN Convention against Cybercrime. The cybersecurity agenda outlined the following measures:

  • Urged members to sign and ratify the UN Convention against Cybercrime: the Russia-born treaty adopted by consensus in December 2024 and opened for signature in Hanoi last October. Only three countries have ratified it so far (Qatar, Azerbaijan, Vietnam), BRICS endorsement is meant to move the needle.
  • Operationalised the BRICS Rapid Information Security Channel (BRISC): a crisis hotline for financial cyber events;
  • Committed to annual BRICS cyber exercises and drills, and a central-bank capacity-building hub, to address quantum computing risks in finance; and
  • Targeted the cross-border fraud factories of Southeast Asia (see also the USCC’s findings) that have targeted Indian savings accounts.

During the cybercrime Convention’s negotiations, India advocated for streamlining human-rights guardrails, thus, a sovereignty-first instinct sat beside the Declaration’s democratic multilateralism. This focus on national security and digital sovereignty is accentuated by acute domestic vulnerabilities. CERT-In handled 29.44 lakh cyber incidents in 2025 (roughly eleven attempted attacks every second) with banking, energy and transport among the most-targeted sectors.

Mobility, Aviation & Logistics

Members strongly advocated for Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) and other low-carbon fuels to cut international flight emissions and proposed a new BRICS Forum on SAF for knowledge exchange and coordination between member states. As the world’s third-largest domestic aviation market, India mandated a 1% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) blending requirement on international flights starting in 2027. SAF involves feedstock, refining, and price support, which is the type of complex technical transition in an area in which Indian industry has relevant capabilities. Furthermore, there is a clear strategic parallel in maritime transit: the Red Sea region that hosts damaged data cables also experiences vessel rerouting. When a single waterway has the potential to disrupt data and fuel supplies, infrastructure resilience transitions from a theoretical concept to national policy. 

A formal ‘Logistics Supply-Chain Cooperation Framework’ was introduced with an aim to strengthen cross-border supply chains, reduce freight costs and improve interoperability and resilience among emerging markets.

What It Means for India

For Indian industry, the summit’s outcomes translate into a few clear priorities across sectors. In telecom and cloud, the upcoming feasibility study will be defining details around landing-station policies, repair capacities, and data-localization rules will determine if sovereign fiber can become a strategic asset. 

In aviation and energy, Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) mandates, feedstock auctions, and joint certification standards mean domestic refiners and suppliers could start to prepare early. 

Within financial services, participation in the BRICS Rapid Information Security Channel, annual cyber drills, and quantum-readiness audits may become standard regulatory expectations. 

Finally, for MSMEs and logistics, new invoice-discounting and credit-assessment initiatives may help ease working-capital pressures for exporters expanding across intra-BRICS trade lanes.

The Implementation Playbook

Looking ahead over the next twenty-four months, it will be interesting to see how these commitments transition into practical outcomes across several key areas. For digital infrastructure, the STI Steering Committee will table the feasibility study’s terms of reference for the subsea cable, focusing specifically on financing models and landing-station policies. 

On cybersecurity, advancing the broader ratification of the cybercrime convention will require active domestic consultation with industry and civil society, alongside establishing named focal points and executing the first annual cyber exercise during China’s BRICS chairship in 2027 to test the framework’s credibility. 

In transport and energy, closely tracking host institutions and pilot projects will determine whether initiatives like the sustainable aviation fuels forum translate into concrete results. Finally, ensuring institutional follow-through will be essential for Indian-authored deliverables, such as the proposed BRICS Risk Lab at GIFT City, which require active institutional backing.

Where the Baton Goes Next

To preserve and sustain the momentum, Prime Minister Modi proposed a “BRICS Continuity and Implementation Mechanism” to track progress. As China prepares to host the upcoming XIX Summit in 2027, Beijing will inherit an active workstream ranging from the cable feasibility study and payment-systems plumbing to the sustainable aviation fuels forum and AI governance statements. While international policy analysts and financial commentators note potential challenges regarding internal consensus and geopolitical rivalries, New Delhi’s successful hosting demonstrated that an expanded BRICS can effectively align on key economic and technical priorities. Thus, twenty years on, BRICS has moved beyond high-level diplomatic discussions to focus on practical redundancy and infrastructure resilience. 

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