BRICS Summit 2026 is coming up fast, and right now the mood inside the bloc feels far from calm. The gathering runs September 12 and 13 in New Delhi, and it closes out India’s turn as chair of the group. It should also mark a moment where the ten-nation bloc shows the world it can act as one. At the time of writing, that unity looks pretty far off. A failed foreign ministers meeting back in May already cracked things open, and questions around BRICS de-dollarization, plus fresh pressure from Washington’s tariffs, plus a BRICS summit 2026 date that keeps creeping closer, are all piling up at once.
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BRICS Summit: 2026 Date Signals De-Dollarization Showdown
No Joint Statement As Iran And UAE Clash Ahead Of BRICS Summit in 2026
The BRICS foreign ministers met in New Delhi on May 14 and 15 to set the stage for the BRICS leaders summit, and yet the meeting ended without a joint declaration, something that hadn’t happened in years. India issued a Chair’s Statement instead, since the group couldn’t agree on wording covering the war in the Middle East. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi took the floor again after other members had already spoken, an unusual move, and he accused the UAE of playing a direct role in the fighting against Iran.
Abbas Araghchi said:
“The UAE was directly involved in the aggression against my country. When the attacks started, they didn’t even issue a condemnation.”
The UAE’s foreign ministry pushed back not long after, and it defended the position Minister of State Khalifa bin Shaheen Al Marar had taken during the summit.
The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that Al Marar had:
“affirmed the UAE’s categorical rejection of Iranian claims and attempts to justify Iranian terrorist attacks targeting the UAE.”
Iran says close to 3,000 ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones hit the UAE and other Gulf states during the war, and the UAE side keeps bringing up that number to defend its position heading into BRICS Summit 2026.
Trump’s Tariff Threats Take Aim At BRICS De-Dollarization
Washington has added pressure of its own, aiming right at the bloc’s BRICS de-dollarization plans as the BRICS summit 2026 date gets nearer. Back in July of 2025, President Donald Trump warned that any country siding with the bloc’s move away from the dollar would face consequences.
Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social:
“Any country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% tariff. There will be no exceptions to this policy.”
White House senior counselor Peter Navarro went even further in a September interview, and he questioned out loud whether the BRICS leaders summit could even produce a bloc that holds together at all:
“The bottom line is that none of these countries can survive if they don’t sell to the United States, and when they sell to the United States their exports, they’re like vampires sucking our blood dry with their unfair trade practices.”
For a bloc that’s spent years trying to cut its reliance on the dollar, comments like these have only made the standoff sharper heading into BRICS Summit 2026.
Xi’s Visit And Media Restrictions Add Pressure To BRICS & India in 2026
Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to show up in New Delhi for BRICS Summit 2026, and the trip would mark his first visit to India since the deadly Galwan Valley border clash back in 2020. Ahead of a possible visit, Chinese officials reportedly asked India to limit media access for journalists who work for Tibetan and Falun Gong outlets at the BRICS leaders summit venue, a request that came in soon after India opened up accreditation for the event.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi also plan to attend, and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim will represent Malaysia as a BRICS partner country rather than a full member. As BRICS India leading role in 2026 nears its end, the guest list alone shows just how much rides on New Delhi’s biggest international gathering since the 2023 G20 summit.
Between the missing joint statement, fresh tariff threats out of Washington, and now the friction over Xi’s visit, BRICS Summit in 2026 is starting to look less like a celebration of India’s chairmanship and more like a real test of whether India can hold this bloc together at all.
