Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi convened in New Delhi on 12 September 2026 for a BRICS summit, according to CNBC and Bloomberg Markets. The gathering takes place against a backdrop of rising U.S. tariffs and sanctions, with member nations exploring deepened economic and political cooperation outside Western-led institutional frameworks. Bloomberg Markets reported that escalating Middle East conflict poses challenges to reaching consensus among the bloc's divergent members.
Iran and Russia used the summit to criticise Western economic sanctions and call for strengthened intra-BRICS trade relationships, with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Putin both making explicit calls for economic realignment, as reported by CNBC.
The Chinese yuan (CNY), Russian ruble (RUB), and Indian rupee (INR) are the domestic currencies of the three principal leaders present; their bilateral and multilateral trade settlement arrangements are directly subject to any agreements reached at the summit on reducing U.S. dollar dependency in BRICS transactions. The U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) measures the dollar's value against a basket of major currencies and reflects shifts in demand for dollar-denominated settlement, which BRICS discussions on alternative payment mechanisms directly bear upon.
Sources: Cnbc TOP, Bloomberg Markets