Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi with a forceful call for a fundamental restructuring of the global order, arguing that developing nations must have a greater say in institutions that shape international economic and political decisions.
Addressing heads of state and government at Bharat Mandapam on Saturday, Modi said the existing global system continues to give disproportionate influence to a limited group of established powers, even as countries of the Global South increasingly bear the consequences of wars, economic disruptions and other international crises.
His remarks placed institutional reform at the centre of India’s BRICS agenda, with Modi proposing a 10-point framework that could eventually become a formal BRICS Reform Roadmap for consideration at next year’s summit.
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Modi used a striking analogy to describe what he sees as the central imbalance in the international system. He argued that the Global South is often at the “front row” when global crises unfold but remains at the “back row” when major decisions are taken.
The prime minister called for this structure to be replaced by what he described as a platform of partnership, where nations have a meaningful voice in decisions that affect them.
The argument reflects a broader push within BRICS to make international institutions more representative of the economic and demographic realities of the 21st century. For India, the issue is particularly significant because emerging economies have gained substantially greater weight in global trade and economic activity while their influence within several post-World War II institutions has not expanded at the same pace.
Modi’s message was therefore not simply about increasing BRICS’ influence. It was about changing the rules and structures through which global influence itself is exercised.
BRICS Summit 2026 Live Latest News: Modi Proposes 10-Point Global Governance Reform Roadmap
Modi proposed that BRICS members prepare 10 specific recommendations for reforming global governance and compile them into a formal BRICS Reform Roadmap ahead of the next summit.
The proposed framework would focus on three broad principles: representation, responsiveness and rule-making.
The objective is to move beyond general calls for reform and develop a concrete set of recommendations that BRICS members can collectively advance in international forums.
Modi also emphasised that institutional reform must be accompanied by implementation. He proposed a new mechanism within BRICS to track decisions and ensure that agreements reached by the grouping translate into action rather than remaining declarations.
This emphasis on implementation is significant as BRICS expands and becomes more diverse. With a larger membership comes a greater challenge of building consensus and ensuring that commitments made collectively can be executed effectively.
BRICS Summit 2026 Live Latest News: Why Modi Is Pushing For UNSC Reform
Reform of the United Nations Security Council was another major component of Modi’s address.
The prime minister argued that reform of the UNSC can no longer be repeatedly postponed and called for negotiations to be conducted within a defined timeframe with clear outcomes.
India has for years advocated an expansion of the Security Council to make it more representative of contemporary global realities. New Delhi has argued that the composition of the council reflects a geopolitical order that emerged in the aftermath of the Second World War rather than today’s distribution of economic and political influence.
Modi’s latest appeal places UNSC reform within the larger BRICS campaign for a more representative international system. The demand is also aligned with the broader position of many developing countries seeking greater participation in institutions that determine global security and governance.
BRICS Summit 2026 Live Latest News: Modi Targets Global Financial Institutions Too
The prime minister extended his reform argument beyond the United Nations and called for changes to international financial institutions.
According to Modi’s vision, voting rights, leadership positions and policy priorities in global financial institutions should better reflect the changing economic weight of developing countries.
The argument is rooted in a long-standing criticism of the international financial architecture: countries that have become major contributors to global growth do not necessarily have decision-making power proportionate to their economic importance.
For India and other emerging economies, reforming these institutions could mean greater influence over decisions involving development finance, international economic policy and responses to global financial shocks.
Modi’s intervention therefore sought to broaden the BRICS reform agenda from political representation to the architecture governing the global economy.
BRICS Summit 2026 Live Latest News: Why Global South Representation Is Central To Modi’s Message
The Global South was at the heart of Modi’s address.
He argued that developing nations frequently face the consequences of conflicts, economic instability, energy disruptions and other global crises, yet their influence over the decisions taken to address those problems remains limited.
His proposed alternative is a system in which countries affected by global decisions have a genuine stake in determining those decisions.
Modi framed the issue around the idea of shared responsibility and shared influence, arguing that if the future of the international system is collective, the authority to shape that future must also be more widely distributed.
That message gives India’s BRICS presidency a broader diplomatic objective: positioning the grouping not merely as an economic coalition of emerging economies, but as a platform through which the Global South can press for structural changes in global governance.
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The push for reform comes at a particularly complicated moment for BRICS.
The grouping has expanded to include countries such as Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, bringing together states with significant economic, strategic and geopolitical differences.
Those differences are particularly visible over the ongoing conflict in West Asia, where member states have varying interests and positions.
Yet BRICS members managed to reach consensus on a joint declaration after negotiations continued into the early hours of Saturday. The agreement demonstrated that the expanded grouping can still produce a common position despite differences among its members.
For India, that consensus provides an important backdrop to Modi’s call for a larger global role. The challenge now is to determine whether BRICS can convert that diplomatic consensus into sustained institutional initiatives.
BRICS Summit 2026 Live Latest News: Modi Balances Reform Ambition With A Non-Confrontational BRICS
While Modi delivered a strong critique of the existing global system, he also sought to distinguish BRICS’ reform agenda from an attempt to create an opposing geopolitical bloc.
India’s position is that BRICS should function as an inclusive platform for cooperation rather than as an organisation defined by opposition to the West.
That distinction is increasingly important as BRICS expands its membership and attracts greater international attention. The grouping’s growing economic weight has led to debate over whether it could evolve into a counterweight to Western-led institutions.
Modi’s approach attempts to steer that debate in another direction: BRICS can seek a redistribution of global influence without defining itself through confrontation with any particular country or bloc.
BRICS Summit 2026 Live Latest News: What Modi’s Global Governance Push Means
Modi’s opening address effectively placed global governance reform at the centre of India’s BRICS presidency.
The proposed 10-point Reform Roadmap, the demand for time-bound UNSC reform and calls for greater representation within international financial institutions collectively point towards a broader objective: changing who gets to shape the rules of the international system.
The central argument is that the economic rise of the Global South should eventually translate into greater political and institutional representation.
For BRICS, however, the difficult part will be converting that shared ambition into a workable consensus among an increasingly diverse membership. If the grouping can maintain unity while developing concrete proposals, India’s push could give BRICS a more substantive role in the debate over the future architecture of global governance.
