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Snapshot of the day
September 14, 2026
Siddharth Varadarajan, Kalrav Joshi, Anirudh S.K.
An unscheduled meeting between the President of Iran and the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and dogged diplomatic drafting ensured the BRICS summit hosted by India generated a closing consensus document despite persisting differences over the war in West Asia. Of course, the compromise paragraph included in the New Delhi Declaration said little of substance:
“We express deep concern over the continued escalation of tensions in Middle East/West Asia and, recalling our respective national positions, call for exercising maximum restraint, as well as avoiding actions that could further aggravate the situation.”
However, this bromide helped avoid the embarrassment of a grouping that styles itself as “an important platform for inclusive global governance” being unable to produce a joint statement.
At least one-third of the New Delhi Declaration is identical or nearly identical to BRICS’s 2025 Rio Declaration. Devirupa Mitra has a useful analysis of what is new in the Delhi document. Most significantly, the declaration condemns unilateral sanctions, secondary sanctions and trade barriers, and expressed “serious concerns” over the rise of unilateral tariff and non-tariff measures that distort trade and are inconsistent with WTO rules. BRICS members also included a paragraph expressing “deep concern on the situation relating to Cuba due to the tightening of unilateral blockade measures against the country, their adverse effects on the Cuban economy, energy supplies and the worrying humanitarian impact on the Cuban people.”
Apart from the Iran-UAE meeting, the summit sidelines also saw India and China seeking to put the bitterness of the past six years behind them. Prime Minister Modi and China’s Xi Jinping – who met already in Bishkek last month – had a 40 minute sit-down in Delhi. The border was a central element of the Indian readout of their meeting: the MEA cited Modi as saying that peace and tranquility along the Line of Actual Control ‘remains an essential basis’ for the development of ties. Per Beijing, Xi said while both sides should stay committed to resolving the boundary question, they should seek “parallel” progress in relations.
China also had notable things to say about the two sides being ‘partners’ and not ‘rivals’, and on Tibet and Taiwan; apart from citing Modi as saying that the development of Sino-Indian ties is ‘not affected by any third party’. Check out Devirupa Mitra’s report on the two leaders’ meeting for more.
Speaking to Xinhua on Monday, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi summed up the significance of the Modi-Xi meeting thus:
Xi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi conducted a candid and in-depth exchange of views on strategic, long-term and directional issues concerning China-India relations, Wang said, noting that the most important consensus they reached was that China and India should be partners.
The Chinese president said China and India can draw on each other’s strengths, support one another, help each other succeed and pursue common development, Wang said.
The leaders of the two countries agreed to jointly maintain peace and tranquility in border areas, while the two countries will support each other as rotating chair of the BRICS,
Incidentally Xi did not attend a cultural programme arranged for visiting dignitaries or Modi’s gala dinner on Saturday. Now some people have joked that this was because of the dinner’s vegetarian menu, but in all seriousness the spread raises some crucial questions, foremost of them being: is the Modi
