The BRICS are approaching a decisive summit in an unprecedented climate of tensions. Meeting in New Delhi on September 12 and 13, 2026, the ten members of the bloc must display a common vision on strategic issues such as dedollarization and economic cooperation. The exercise promises to be delicate. Territorial rivalries between certain partners, combined with commercial pressures from Washington, are weakening the image of a united front. This meeting will show whether the BRICS can still transform their ambitions into a real alternative to the financial system dominated by the dollar.
In brief
- The BRICS summit scheduled for September 12 and 13, 2026 in New Delhi promises to be under high tension, weakened by the failure of a joint declaration during the preparatory meeting in May.
- Military tensions in the Middle East have sparked a direct diplomatic clash between Iran and the United Arab Emirates, revealing deep internal divisions.
- At the same time, Washington is increasing economic pressure by threatening to impose 10% additional customs duties on any country aligning with the bloc’s dedollarization strategy.
- Between territorial disputes, Chinese censorship demands on the media and American protectionist threats, this gathering constitutes a decisive test for the cohesion of the alliance.
Diplomatic frictions and military disputes within the bloc
During the meeting of foreign ministers held in New Delhi on May 14 and 15, 2026 to prepare for the leaders’ summit, the BRICS bloc suffered an unprecedented setback by failing to publish a joint declaration, a first in several years. Faced with the impossibility of establishing consensus on the wording regarding the conflict in the Middle East, India had to resort to issuing a simple presidential statement. The tension is mainly linked to the following virulent exchanges:
- The direct accusation of Iran: the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abbas Araghchi, spoke in an unusual manner after the intervention of the other members. He has declared : “The United Arab Emirates was directly involved in the aggression against my country. When the attacks started, they didn’t even issue a condemnation.”;
- The official response from the United Arab Emirates: Abu Dhabi quickly responded to support the position of its Minister of State, Khalifa bin Shaheen Al Marar. In its press release, Emirati diplomacy indicates that the minister “affirmed the Emirates’ categorical rejection of Tehran’s allegations and any attempt to legitimize Iranian terrorist attacks targeting the country”.
This verbal altercation is based on a heavy security record accumulated before the gathering. According to data provided by Tehran, nearly 3,000 ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones hit the United Arab Emirates as well as other Gulf states during the hostilities. The persistence of this figure in the arguments put forward by the Emirati side illustrates the depth of the security divide between these two key members.
For Indian diplomacy, host of the summit, the management of these mutual resentments transforms an exercise in multilateral leadership into an operation to neutralize internal crises. The inability to align the foreign policy of nations with antagonistic geopolitical interests weakens the dogma of a united alternative to Western institutions, revealing the vulnerability of a group whose rapid expansion has multiplied areas of friction.
The American protectionist stranglehold in the face of BRICS dedollarization attempts
Alongside these internal dissensions, the project to circumvent the US dollar is facing a direct counter-offensive from Washington. As early as July 2025, President Donald Trump affirmed his desire to financially sanction countries seeking to weaken the American currency. Donald Trump warned on Truth Social: “Any country aligning with BRICS anti-US policies will be subject to an ADDITIONAL 10% tariff. There will be no exceptions to this policy”.
This firm line was supported in September by senior White House advisor Peter Navarro, who openly questioned the economic sustainability of the bloc by declaring: “ultimately, none of these countries can survive if they don’t sell to the United States, and when they sell their exports to the United States, they are like vampires sucking our blood with their unfair trade practices”.
These explicit threats of customs reprisals aim directly to paralyze the dynamic of financial integration of the BRICS bloc even before its formalization. Faced with the real risk of an increase in the cost of their exports to the American market, several emerging members find themselves forced to arbitrate between their immediate commercial imperatives and their adherence to the alternative payment mechanisms advocated by the group.
The White House’s rhetorical and economic offensive thus instills strategic doubt in the partners most exposed to international trade, considerably slowing down the transition to local sovereign currencies or cross-border settlement cryptos.
The outlook for New Delhi
On a diplomatic and organizational level, the announced arrival of Chinese President Xi Jinping, his first trip to India since the deadly clash in the Galwan Valley in 2020, is triggering new tensions. Chinese officials asked Indian authorities to restrict access to the summit grounds for journalists working for Tibetan or Falun Gong-related media, shortly after the launch of the accreditation process.
These organizational constraints are added to the presence of an audience of key leaders including Vladimir Putin, Masoud Pezeshkian and Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, while Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim will represent his country as a partner. For India, this is the biggest diplomatic challenge since the 2023 G20 summit.
This accumulation of diplomatic pressure places the Indian host at the center of a complex equation where the credibility of the bloc is at stake in the organizational details. Beijing’s demands for media censorship are reviving bilateral distrust, while the presence of non-member partners illustrates the hesitation of some nations to fully commit to the alliance. Thus, New Delhi’s capacity to preserve a functional space for dialogue despite divergent territorial and ideological claims will serve as a life-size test to measure the degree of institutional maturity of the organization.
The repercussions of this double pressure, both external and structural, are proving decisive for the global financial architecture. If the threat of American customs retaliation could encourage certain cautious members to moderate their commitment to an alternative monetary system, internal blockages risk slowing down its technical execution.
The ability of the New Delhi summit to produce a credible monetary roadmap will depend on a delicate trade-off between the commercial pragmatism of Member States and their desire for financial autonomy. Future developments will tell whether BRICS will manage to move beyond rhetoric to build resilient market infrastructures, or whether the weight of territorial divisions and global economic dependencies will lastingly hamper their strategic ambitions.
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