Russia
Source: tvbrics.com

Development of 5G networks and telecommunications cooperation in BRICS countries

Why are fifth-generation networks in the BRICS+ countries increasingly becoming an element of industrial infrastructure rather than merely a telecommunications technology? What 5G deployment models have already emerged within BRICS+, and how do they create different investment risk-return profiles?

Where value is created in the 5G market

The shift toward an industrial model of 5G in the BRICS+ countries is driven by economic logic. The consumer segment offers a longer payback period in a number of emerging markets. As a result, growing attention is being paid to industrial applications of 5G. Manufacturing, logistics, and agriculture, by contrast, generate a measurable economic effect from 5G adoption: reduced downtime, optimised supply chains, and lower energy costs. That is precisely why fifth-generation networks are increasingly being deployed not for the mass consumer but for specific production tasks.

The BRICS+ countries are gradually transforming fifth-generation networks from a telecommunications technology into an element of industrial infrastructure. Different models of 5G deployment are taking shape within the group, and the market's development trajectory depends on countries' ability to combine investment, standards, and technological compatibility.

The investment structure of the 5G market is not limited to network construction. Economic value is created across several interconnected levels – from physical communications infrastructure to digital platforms and applied industry-specific solutions.

The foundation of the market is physical infrastructure: base stations, fibre-optic lines, data centres, and radio spectrum. This is where the bulk of capital expenditure (CapEx) is concentrated. Telecom operators in developing countries allocate, on average, 20–25 per cent of annual revenue to investment, forming a stable base for equipment suppliers and network solution providers.

The next level of value creation is directly tied to telecommunications networks and communication services. Beyond traditional mobile services, private fifth-generation networks – used in industry, logistics, ports, and energy – are playing an increasingly important role. In such projects, the network becomes part of the production process.

The third level consists of platform solutions: industrial Internet of Things (IoT), predictive analytics systems, and edge computing. It is at this level that data becomes a production resource used for management decision-making.

The fourth level comprises applied industry solutions: precision agriculture, smart cities, and digital twins of industrial facilities. It is here that digitalisation produces a measurable economic effect.

Semyon Tenyaev, an information technology expert, emphasises that 5G serves as the foundation for cross-cutting technologies – industrial IoT, artificial intelligence (AI), and big data processing.

"Together they form the toolkit for the digitalisation of industry and scientific and technological cooperation, making it possible to introduce smart factories, autonomous logistics, and predictive analytics systems," notes Semyon Tenyaev, founder of a major Russian professional social network for expert content. According to the expert, the development of such infrastructure will help strengthen the BRICS countries' technological competencies and expand their opportunities in the digital economy.

Growth in industrial traffic and the digital divide

The global telecommunications system is gradually shifting from a consumer-driven model to an industrial one. The main growth in traffic is being generated by logistics, energy, agriculture, and industrial production.

The Kazan Declaration of the 16th BRICS Summit cements this transformation: the group's leaders recognised the "crucial role of industrial partnership in accelerating economic growth" and expressed their intention to deepen cooperation in high-tech sectors, creating a direct mandate for investment in industrial digital infrastructure. These intentions build on the existing BRICS Digital Economy Partnership Framework (2022) – a framework document providing for strengthened cooperation in telecommunications infrastructure to ensure "safe, resilient, and affordable connectivity".

According to the International Telecommunication Union, global mobile internet traffic has grown by an average of 19 per cent annually since 2021. This is linked to growth in machine-to-machine data exchange, industrial IoT, and distributed computing systems.

At the same time, a persistent digital divide remains. 5G coverage reaches 84 per cent in high-income countries, compared with just 4 per cent in low-income countries. The gap in data consumption per connection is 17.9 GB versus 2.2 GB per month. In high-income countries, 5G covers 89 per cent of urban residents and 59 per cent of rural residents, whereas in low-income countries, 5G is available to only 9 per cent of the urban population and is almost entirely absent in rural areas. This urban-rural divide creates additional investment risk: profitability of rural networks requires either government subsidies or a fundamentally different business model.

Semyon Tenyaev emphasises that the digital divide creates a structural skew in the investment attractiveness of BRICS+ countries, shaping different models of participation in the development of the digital economy.

The International Telecommunication Union reports that, in low-income countries, the share of income spent on a mobile broadband package is on average 22 times higher than in high-income countries. In other words, the poorer the country, the greater the share of income its residents are forced to spend on connectivity. This means that price elasticity of demand for 5G in the poorest BRICS+ countries is extremely low, and monetisation through consumer traffic there is virtually impossible without subsidies.

For investors, this creates a key asymmetry: return on investment in network infrastructure depends directly on the density of the digital economy. The 5G market within BRICS+ represents a collection of markets with differing capital intensity, monetisation speed, and risk profiles. An additional factor in investment attractiveness is the sheer scale of the BRICS+ market, which encompasses a significant share of the world's population and one of the largest aggregate mobile subscriber bases. Domestic demand creates conditions for accelerated adoption of digital services and the development of next-generation infrastructure.

Payback periods vary significantly depending on the monetisation model. Projects orientated toward the mass consumer market generally require a longer investment-return horizon. Private 5G networks deployed in industry and agriculture, by contrast, can pay back faster through direct savings on operating costs – though exact timelines depend on the density of industrial demand and the level of government support.

In sub-Saharan African countries with low fibre-optic infrastructure density, payback periods can exceed 10 years or require non-linear return models. At the same time, the average payback period for digital economy infrastructure projects is 5–10 years, comparable to traditional infrastructure assets – confirming their attractiveness to institutional investors. A key success factor is not only the availability of technology but also access to financing, fibre-optic infrastructure, and skilled personnel.

Thus, the 5G market in the BRICS+ countries and the broader Global South represents a collection of segments with varying capital intensity, monetisation speed, and risk levels.

China and India: models of digital sovereignty

China's model relies on centralised infrastructure deployment (CapEx) and the scale of its domestic market. The bulk of capital expenditure is borne by the state, which lowers the unit cost of technology and accelerates adoption.

China has deployed 4.04 million 5G base stations, giving it the largest 5G infrastructure among the BRICS+ countries. China is the BRICS technology leader in 5G, and Chinese companies hold a dominant position in the telecommunications equipment market. For recipient countries, this means rapid access to proven solutions and vendor financing but also a high degree of technological dependence on a single supplier, which limits room for competition and diversification.

Chinese technology companies play a key role in exporting 5G equipment and turnkey solutions to countries of the Global South. This ensures rapid network deployment but simultaneously deepens technological dependence on a limited number of suppliers.

According to Aleksander Dashichev, an expert on technological and digital sovereignty, civil society, and third-sector organisations, the difference between the two models is not only technological but also geopolitical in nature.

"China is capable of carrying out the full production cycle of network equipment and therefore has the ability to control the ecosystem in line with its long-term geopolitical ambitions. In this respect, the Chinese architecture is essentially synonymous with the Western one. India, at its current stage, is seeking to compensate for its lack of domestic network components by adopting OpenRAN to control the connection points between hardware and software," notes Aleksander Dashichev, junior research fellow at the Department of Social and Political Studies of the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IE RAS).

India is forming a fundamentally different model – the development of a sovereign 4G/5G technology stack through a consortium led by the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT). The stack is built on OpenRAN architecture – an international open radio access network standard that ensures interoperability of equipment from different manufacturers. This approach reduces dependence on individual vendors and provides modularity for network infrastructure.

OpenRAN gives countries a tool for reducing vendor dependence, but experts caution against idealising it. Aleksander Dashichev notes, "OpenRAN looks like a temporary solution, necessary only until the moment a so-called "proprietary", in-house development appears. The question of dependence is always relevant in technology: it's a constant game of minimising risk," the expert explains.

This has given rise to two distinct approaches: China's vertically integrated model and India's horizontally modular model, which requires a more mature local engineering ecosystem. However, the choice of 5G architecture is only the first level of decision-making. The second, equally significant question is how to finance network deployment and who will control the value created. The answers to these questions lie not in the technological but in the investment domain.

The market-orientated models of Brazil and South Africa

Brazil is developing a market-orientated model through spectrum auctions with investment obligations placed on operators. The regulatory approach of the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) is aimed at drawing in private capital and shifting CapEX risk toward operators.

A significant share of the country's territory remains outside 5G coverage, exacerbating regional inequality and requiring additional investment in rural infrastructure. The priority is the agro-industrial sector, where 5G is used for precision farming, agro-logistics, and monitoring production cycles. This creates a direct link between digital infrastructure and export cost structures. The Kazan Declaration reinforces the significance of this model: the BRICS+ countries agreed to develop cooperation on monitoring and early-warning systems for agriculture, which will require investment in data collection and connectivity.

South Africa is positioning itself as Africa's regional telecommunications hub. Its 5G spectrum release programme is coordinated by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa. Limited fibre-optic infrastructure and a shortage of skilled personnel simultaneously create constraints and reinforce the country's importance as a digital traffic routing hub.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE: industrial and financial hubs

Saudi Arabia's experience in deploying private 5G networks presents practical interest to other countries in the group developing industrial digital infrastructure. As part of the Vision 2030 strategy, a private 5G model focused on industrial facilities is being developed. Networks are built for specific industrial tasks, which improves economic efficiency compared with the mass consumer segment.
The UAE is forming a multi-layered role in digital infrastructure: data centres, cloud services, and transit of digital traffic between Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The country's sovereign wealth funds actively invest in technology and digital assets, lowering the cost of capital for infrastructure projects.

The UAE's regulatory framework actively promotes public-private partnerships (PPP) in infrastructure projects, including telecommunications. Emirati legislation provides for special economic zones and free-trade clusters with preferential tax regimes, lowering the barrier to entry for foreign investors and further reducing operating costs for technology companies. Emirati state entities are able to finance capital-intensive projects without external debt, which lowers the cost of capital and accelerates payback.

The UAE performs the functions of a regional capital-placement and data-transit hub between Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The Kazan Declaration directly supports this approach, calling for the development of sustainable transport and logistics infrastructure, which in today's context is impossible without a digital layer.

Thus, various models of 5G deployment have emerged within BRICS+. The Chinese model offers rapid scaling and low unit costs but creates high technological dependence for recipients. The Indian model reduces vendor risk through modularity and open standards but requires a mature engineering ecosystem. The Brazilian model ties 5G to specific industries, achieving payback through reduced export costs. The Saudi model is orientated toward contract-based industrial infrastructure with sovereign financing. The UAE acts as a financial and transit hub connecting Asia and Africa. Each of these models creates its own investment profile – ranging from low-margin but stable cash flow at the infrastructure level to high returns at the platform and application levels.

The financial model of 5G and a new investment architecture

The substantial cost of building 5G infrastructure is one of the main challenges facing the BRICS+ countries, and the success of deployment depends directly on the ability to attract private investment and use public-private partnership (PPP) mechanisms. Although the bulk of profitability is concentrated at the platform and application levels, infrastructure remains a necessary precondition for subsequent monetisation of digital services: without networks there is no data, and without data there are no platforms. Investment in physical infrastructure is therefore the entry ticket into the industrial 5G economy, even if most of the revenue will ultimately be generated at higher levels of the value chain.

Financing of digital infrastructure in BRICS+ is increasingly being carried out through blended finance models, combining state guarantees, development-institution capital, and private investment. Key instruments include lowering the cost of capital through development guarantees, improving project creditworthiness, and currency hedging. Access to vendor financing is one of the key factors determining the pace of network deployment in developing countries. Chinese companies actively use this mechanism, offering integrated "equipment plus financing" packages, which creates both opportunities for rapid deployment and risks of debt dependency.

Sovereign wealth funds from the Emirates, operating through PPPs, can act as co-investors in BRICS+ digital infrastructure projects, providing not only capital but also institutional expertise. The PPP model actively used in the UAE could be scaled to projects in other BRICS+ countries. The use of public-private partnership and project finance mechanisms is an optimal model for digital infrastructure, allowing state guarantees to be combined with market-based management efficiency. A direct mandate for this approach is found in the BRICS Digital Economy Partnership Framework, which calls for "encouraging resource mobilisation, including through public-private partnerships, to support digital infrastructure projects".

Abed Amiri, a representative of BRICS Hub in Iran and Russia and an expert on economic and technological cooperation among BRICS countries, digital transformation, and the use of AI in business, emphasises that PPP is the primary but strictly context-dependent mechanism.

"In developed and fast-growing economies, PPP acts as an innovation lever, where the state creates aggregated demand through smart city and industrial IoT programmes, while the private sector provides technological speed. In developing countries with a capital deficit, the model shifts toward joint public-private ownership, including state equity stakes in operators. A critical success factor for both groups is tying 5G projects to specific industry use cases – logistics, telemedicine, and energy management – since this is the only way a sustainable commercial model can take shape. Building a 'bare' network without applied content inevitably leads to failure, regardless of its organisational form," believes expert Amiri.

The Kazan Declaration calls on the New Development Bank (NDB) to expand the practice of providing sustainable, accessible, and cost-effective infrastructure projects. This creates a direct political impetus for financing digital infrastructure as a priority asset class. The NDB has the potential to become one of the key sources of financing for 5G infrastructure projects.

Abed Amiri views the New Development Bank not so much as a lender but as an institutional integrator. In his assessment, the bank finances projects in physical infrastructure – transport, energy, and smart cities – into which digital connectivity is embedded as a mandatory technological layer.

"The formation of a unified digital architecture in the BRICS+ countries is realistic not as unification but as a network of compatible national segments connected through distributed ledger protocols and bridges for settlements in central bank digital currencies. The architecture will be realised not as a monolithic system but as a fractal ecosystem in which the NDB plays the role of system integrator," the expert said.

Sovereign wealth funds of the Gulf states, including the UAE and Saudi Arabia, are acting as architects of industrial digital clusters. In Latin America, national development institutions are supporting the digitalisation of the agricultural sector.

The transition to a coordinated BRICS+ architecture and structural constraints

Within BRICS+, a need for infrastructure interoperability is emerging. Standards alignment, certification, and unification of network security requirements are becoming tools for reducing transaction costs.

At the 2024 BRICS summit in Kazan, it was declared necessary to ensure safe, resilient, stable, reliable, accessible, and affordable connectivity and to develop sustainable digital infrastructure as one of the priorities. The key mechanism identified for this is the BRICS Digital Economy Partnership Framework, which covers standardisation, cross-border data flows, and joint 5G projects. The declaration calls for harmonising approaches and standards and developing the interoperability of digital systems, which institutionally reduces the risk of fragmentation and creates the basis for a unified market for industrial connectivity.

Moreover, at the BRICS Transport Working Group Meeting in June 2025, the group's countries affirmed the priority of digital transformation in the transport sector and created a new track for transport digitalisation. This confirms that demand for digital connectivity and common standards comes not only from the telecom industry but also from the transport sector – one of the largest consumers of industrial 5G.

Applying this architectural logic to the telecommunications sphere means that a unified market for industrial connectivity in BRICS+ is not a single network under one operator's control but a system of compatible national infrastructures operating according to agreed standards. It is precisely this approach that reduces political risk for investors: countries retain sovereignty over their infrastructure while gaining access to a shared market for digital services. Lower costs for cross-border data transmission support the development of digital services and the growing role of intangible assets in international investment flows.

Key risks

The main systemic risk is technological stratification between architect countries and technology-consumer countries. The dominance of a single vendor in a developing country's market can lead to a technological monopoly that limits opportunities for competition and innovation.

Additional constraints include a shortage of engineering personnel in network technologies and industrial IoT, fragmentation of software standards despite relative hardware-level harmonisation, and the dependence of individual countries on external digital platforms. Uneven 5G coverage could entrench economic inequality between urban and rural regions, creating long-term social and economic risks.

Experience with the BRICS logistics platform shows that the key risk is not technical incompatibility but the absence of common rules – including end-to-end digital corridors with simplified procedures and tariff coordination mechanisms. Without this, even compatible equipment does not guarantee the formation of a unified market.

An additional risk factor is the high share of energy costs in operating expenses (OPEX) – up to 30 per cent. In countries with unstable energy supply or high electricity prices, this creates additional pressure on project profitability and requires that energy risks be factored into financial models.

Probable outlook for the deployment of 5G for 2026–2030

The potential to form a coordinated architecture for industrial connectivity in BRICS+ does exist – as evidenced by the Kazan Declaration, the launch of practical tracks for transport digitalisation, and the experience of the multimodal logistics platform. However, realising this potential depends on the political will of member states and their readiness to compromise on standardisation and certification. Without this, the market will remain fragmented.

Coordination of 5G standards among the BRICS+ countries is forming not a unified market in the classical sense, but a zone of interoperability among disparate national infrastructures. Under these conditions, digital infrastructure is gradually acquiring the characteristics of traditional assets – long payback periods, a high share of capital expenditure, and dependence on PPP financing mechanisms.

The 2024 Kazan Declaration established the political foundation for this convergence, setting out the priority of safe, resilient, and affordable connectivity. Practical progress on this agenda is being reinforced through institutional mechanisms of BRICS, including the Digital Economy Partnership Framework and sector-specific digitalisation tracks, which are gradually moving standards coordination from a declarative to an applied level.

However, the current trajectory remains asymmetric. The BRICS+ countries are simultaneously showing signs of cooperation and deepening technological divergence: China is developing a centralised model of large-scale deployment, India a modular architecture based on open standards, Brazil and South Africa market-regulated and regionally orientated models, and the Middle Eastern countries are forming infrastructure-financial hubs for digital traffic.

The International Telecommunication Union reports that 74 per cent of the world's population – 6 billion people – already use the internet. The next billion connections will come from countries of the Global South, and it is there that a significant share of new demand for digital infrastructure may form over the next decade. As industrial traffic grows and the use of 5G expands in logistics, energy, and agriculture, the centre of economic value is shifting from the infrastructure level toward the platform and application layers. This is intensifying competition between technology ecosystems for control over the data and services that generate the bulk of profitability in the digital economy.

Over the 2026–2030 horizon, the most likely scenario remains one of partial fragmentation alongside the parallel development of coordination points. Full integration would require not only technological compatibility but also institutional convergence of regulatory and investment models, which remains limited under current conditions.

Thus, 5G within the BRICS+ space is ceasing to be purely a telecommunications technology and is becoming an element of investment architecture – one that will shape the distribution of capital, data, and technological influence in the emerging digital economy.

The article was prepared by Vakhit Niyazov.

India
Source: www.livemint.com

India will be hosting the 12th BRICS Environment Ministers' Meeting and Senior Officers' Meeting at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi on August 17–18, 2026.

The BRICS Senior Officers’ Meeting of the Environment Working Group and the Contact Group on Climate Change and Sustainable Development will be held on August 17.

Meanwhile, a ministerial-level meeting — the 12th BRICS Environment Ministers Meeting — will take place in New Delhi on August 18, 2026.

The event would be held under the theme of India’s BRICS Chairship 2026 - ‘Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability’.

Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav will attend the BRICS Environment Ministers’ Meeting.

It would provide a platform for ministers, senior officers, policymakers, and experts from the member countries to engage in substantive discussions, foster consensus, and strengthen environmental cooperation.

What to expect on Aug 17-18?

According to the government's press release, the first day would witness the Senior Officers’ Meeting, which would include an inaugural session and deliberations on the priorities of the BRICS Environment Working Group and Contact Group on Climate Change and Sustainable Development.

The second day would culminate in ministerial-level deliberations on the outcome document and thematic discussions that underscore the collective commitment of BRICS Member Countries to environmental cooperation and sustainable development.

India's four priority areas

As part of the Chairship, India has identified four priority areas for focused engagements under the BRICS Environment Working Group.

Priority I: Promoting Sustainable Lifestyles underscores environmental commitments by promoting sustainable lifestyles through mindful consumption and community practices, while fostering collaboration, sharing knowledge, leading practices and success stories to develop innovative approaches from the Member Countries.

Priority II: Afforestation, Forest Fire Management and Disaster Resilience focuses on strengthening land restoration by combining structured knowledge exchange and capacity building with advanced data collection, monitoring and addressing shared challenges through integrated, landscape-based greening approaches. This priority also emphasises on forest fire management, prevention, preparedness, early detection and rapid response.

Priority III: Circular Economy showcases effective waste management practices by developing robust Extended Producer Responsibility policy frameworks and regulatory approaches. This priority aims to exemplify the leading practices, across Member Countries to ensure equity and resource use efficiency which would lead to a pivotal policy instrument for advancing circular economy transitions.

Priority IV: Adaptation focuses on advancing cooperation on climate adaptation through people-centric and community-led adaptation built on traditional knowledge. This priority supports the deliberation on practical cooperation, structured knowledge exchange, exchange of best practices and policy-relevant outcomes built over traditional knowledge systems that strengthens climate resilience across BRICS Member Countries.

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, under its BRICS 2026 Chairship, initiated discussions and deliberations through a series of virtual meetings, technical sessions, webinars and dialogues during the period March to July 2026.

Dialogue on BRICS Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy, and Aligning Carbon Markets with Adaptation Goals, besides Webinars on Initiatives Towards addressing Land Degradation, Desertification and Drought, and Integrated Approaches to Wildfire Management for Disaster Resilience were also organized.

These consultations provided an important platform for building consensus and setting the context for in-person deliberations in New Delhi on 17th - 18th August 2026.

What is BRICS EWG?

The BRICS Environment Working Group (EWG) was established in 2015 during the first BRICS Environment Ministers’ Meeting in Moscow.

It was envisioned as a platform for BRICS to address fundamental environment priorities, exchange experiences, share best practices and strengthen collective action amongst BRICS Member Countries

The Contact Group on Climate Change and Sustainable Development was established in 2024 as an effective mechanism for cooperation on climate change issues amongst BRICS member countries.

India
Source: ddindia.co.in

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) will host the BRICS ICT Track in Pune from August 17 to 21 as part of India’s BRICS Chairship for 2026, bringing together Communications Ministers, senior government officials and technology experts from member countries to strengthen cooperation in information and communication technologies.

The five-day programme will be held under the theme “Innovate, Cooperate and Transform (ICT) for a Resilient Future” and will focus on building secure, inclusive, sustainable and resilient digital ecosystems.

BRICS currently comprises 11 emerging and developing economies – Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.

The ICT Track will feature three major events: the 7th BRICS Working Group Meeting for Cooperation in ICTs, the Digital BRICS Forum and Expo, and the 12th BRICS Communications Ministers Meeting.

BRICS ICT Working Group to discuss digital cooperation

The programme will begin with the 7th BRICS ICT Working Group Meeting, scheduled from August 17 to 19.

Delegates will deliberate on developing ICT ecosystems that enable universal, meaningful, affordable, sustainable and resilient connectivity. Discussions will also cover trusted, secure and human-centric digital environments, digital skills and capacity development, and strengthening innovation, startups and entrepreneurship in the ICT sector.

Emerging technologies and areas including artificial intelligence, next-generation communications, Digital Public Infrastructure, cybersecurity, child online protection and digital ecosystem cooperation are also expected to feature prominently in the discussions.

Digital BRICS Forum and Expo on August 20

The Digital BRICS Forum and Expo will be held on August 20, providing a platform to showcase cooperation in emerging digital technologies and resilient ICT ecosystems.

The forum will feature thematic discussions on cybersecurity and trustworthy ICTs, including child online protection, as well as sustainable and resilient digital and ICT ecosystems.

Communications Ministers to meet on August 21

The 12th BRICS Communications Ministers Meeting will be held on August 21, with Union Communications and Development of North Eastern Region Minister Jyotiraditya M. Scindia representing India.

Communications Ministers from BRICS countries are expected to review the priorities of the ICT Track and explore ways to deepen cooperation in sustainable and resilient ICT ecosystems, cybersecurity and trustworthy ICT, digital skilling and capacity building, and innovation, startups and entrepreneurship.

The hosting of the ICT Track in Pune is part of India’s broader efforts under its 2026 BRICS Chairship to strengthen international cooperation in technology and digital development.

The Ministry of Communications said the programme reflects India’s commitment to promoting digital innovation and technology-led, sustainable and inclusive growth, while working with BRICS partners to build a resilient digital future.

India
Source: newsonair.gov.in

China and Russia have reaffirmed their support for India’s BRICS presidency this year, as New Delhi chairs the grouping for the fourth time.

Chinese Ambassador to India Xu Feihong and Russia’s Charge d’Affaires Roman Babushkin attended a BRICS Ambassadors’ Roundtable Discussion hosted by the Vivekananda International Foundation in New Delhi today. Ambassador Xu said China is ready to work with India and other BRICS members to deepen cooperation and strengthen the grouping’s role in global affairs.

Russia’s Roman Babushkin also reaffirmed Moscow’s support for India’s priorities as BRICS chair, describing the grouping as an important platform for practical cooperation and for advancing the interests of the Global South. The discussion focused on BRICS’ role in building a resilient and sustainable global order, with emphasis on inclusivity, multilateralism and South-South cooperation.

India’s 2026 BRICS chairship is guided by the theme, Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability. BRICS currently brings together eleven major emerging economies, Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.

India
Source: pib.gov.in

India is set to host the 12th BRICS Environment Ministers Meeting in New Delhi on 18.08.2026, preceded by the BRICS Senior Officers’ Meeting of the Environment Working Group and Contact Group on Climate Change and Sustainable Development on 17.08.2026. The event would be held under the overarching theme of India’s BRICS Chairship 2026 - ‘Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability’.

New Delhi to host BRICS Senior Officers’ Meeting & 12th Environment Ministers’ Meeting under the Environment Working Group and Contact Group on Climate Change and Sustainable Development, on 17-18 August 2026.@BricsIndia2026#BRICS2026 #BRICSIndia2026 #IndiaBRICSChairship… pic.twitter.com/pRwfxRgnTL

— MoEF&CC (@moefcc) August 16, 2026

The BRICS Environment Ministers’ Meeting would be presided over by Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri Bhupender Yadav and would provide a platform for Ministers, Senior Officers, policymakers, and experts from the Member Countries to engage in substantive discussions, foster consensus, and strengthen environmental cooperation.

The first day would witness the Senior Officers’ Meeting, which would include an inaugural session and deliberations on the priorities of the BRICS Environment Working Group and Contact Group on Climate Change and Sustainable Development.

The second day would culminate in Ministerial-level deliberations on the outcome document and thematic discussions that underscore the collective commitment of BRICS Member Countries to environmental cooperation and sustainable development. As part of the Chairship, India has identified four priority areas for focused engagements under the BRICS Environment Working Group.

Priority I: Promoting Sustainable Lifestyles underscores environmental commitments by promoting sustainable lifestyles through mindful consumption and community practices, while fostering collaboration, sharing knowledge, leading practices and success stories to develop innovative approaches from the Member Countries.

Priority II: Afforestation, Forest Fire Management and Disaster Resilience focuses on strengthening land restoration by combining structured knowledge exchange and capacity building with advanced data collection, monitoring and addressing shared challenges through integrated, landscape-based greening approaches. This priority also emphasises on forest fire management, prevention, preparedness, early detection and rapid response.

Priority III: Circular Economy showcases effective waste management practices by developing robust Extended Producer Responsibility policy frameworks and regulatory approaches. This priority aims to exemplify the leading practices, across Member Countries to ensure equity and resource use efficiency which would lead to a pivotal policy instrument for advancing circular economy transitions.

Priority IV: Adaptation focuses on advancing cooperation on climate adaptation through people-centric and community-led adaptation built on traditional knowledge. This priority supports the deliberation on practical cooperation, structured knowledge exchange, exchange of best practices and policy-relevant outcomes built over traditional knowledge systems that strengthens climate resilience across BRICS Member Countries.

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, under its BRICS 2026 Chairship, initiated discussions and deliberations through a series of virtual meetings, technical sessions, webinars and dialogues during the period March to July 2026. Dialogue on BRICS Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy, and Aligning Carbon Markets with Adaptation Goals, besides Webinars on Initiatives Towards addressing Land Degradation, Desertification and Drought, and Integrated Approaches to Wildfire Management for Disaster Resilience were also organized. These consultations provided an important platform for building consensus and setting the context for in-person deliberations in New Delhi on 17th - 18th August 2026.

Background

The BRICS Environment Working Group (EWG) was established in 2015 during the first BRICS Environment Ministers’ Meeting in Moscow. It was envisioned as a platform for BRICS to address fundamental environment priorities, exchange experiences, share best practices and strengthen collective action amongst BRICS Member Countries.

The Contact Group on Climate Change and Sustainable Development was established in 2024 as an effective mechanism for cooperation on climate change issues amongst BRICS member countries.

India
Source: pib.gov.in

Under India’s BRICS Chairship 2026, Senior Officers’ Meeting of the Environment Working Group and Contact Group on Climate Change and Sustainable Development was held in Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, on 17th August 2026. The meeting was chaired by Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Government of India, Shri Tanmay Kumar. The proceedings witnessed participation from BRICS member countries including Federative Republic of Brazil, People’s Republic of China, Arab Republic of Egypt, Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Republic of Indonesia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Russian Federation, Republic of South Africa and United Arab Emirates.

Secretary, @moefcc , Shri Tanmay Kumar, welcomed the distinguished delegates from BRICS Member Countries to the Environment Working Group-Senior Officers' Meeting affirming solidarity & shared commitments towards a sustainable future.#BRICS2026#BRICSIndia2026… pic.twitter.com/6T5n3bWabA

— MoEF&CC (@moefcc) August 17, 2026

In his keynote address, the Chair stated that over the past two decades, the BRICS alliance has expanded from an economic dialogue into an increasingly influential platform for defining its approach to the critical challenges facing the environment, including pressing global issues of increasing pollution, biodiversity loss as well as global warming. He said, "Our partnership has broadened in terms of relevance to sustainable development, climate resilience and adaptation, resource efficiency and circular economy, as well as environmental governance."

The Chair informed that BRICS 2026 has been guided by the vision of the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, that global cooperation must remain people-centric by advancing a humanity-first approach. This vision finds expression in the Chairship theme - 'Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation, and Sustainability'. India has sought to advance environmental action through approaches that integrate ecological sustainability with development objectives, it was stated.

Over the course of India’s Chairship, the Environment Working Group and the Contact Group on Climate Change and Sustainable Development have together advanced cooperation across four interconnected priority areas: Promoting Sustainable Lifestyles; Afforestation, Forest Fire Management and Disaster Resilience; Circular Economy and Adaptation.

The Chair stated that these priorities reflect both the shared environmental challenges confronting the BRICS countries and the collective wisdom and strength to address them. They reflect the unanimous recognition that climate resilience, ecosystem restoration, resource efficiency and sustainable development are deeply interconnected challenges that require integrated and holistic responses rather than isolated interventions in silos.

It was informed that since the commencement of India’s Chairship, Member Countries have engaged through 21 virtual thematic and negotiation meetings, 10 bilateral consultations, 2 thematic dialogues and 2 technical webinars, reflecting an extraordinary level of commitment to advancing the shared agenda. The marathon deliberations would culminate in building a consensus on the key priorities during the Senior Officers' meeting being held today.

Concluding the address, the chair expressed confidence that the spirit of co-operation and mutual respect which has guided the collective dialogues and discussions so far would continue to guide the deliberations today. The 12th BRICS Environment Ministers' Meeting is scheduled to be held in New Delhi tomorrow.

The participating delegations from the BRICS member countries congratulated India for its successful leadership as the BRICS Chair and bringing together each side through productive deliberations on the priority areas, under an atmosphere of mutual respect, trust and consensus-based decision making.

Russia
Source: en.economy.gov.ru

Russia continues to successfully advance the initiative to establish a Grain Exchange within the BRICS framework. This was stated by Deputy Minister of Economic Development Vladimir Ilyichev at the 16th meeting of BRICS ministers of economy and foreign trade. The event made it possible to present the structure of the proposed platform and the modalities of its operation, as well as to hear the positions of the member countries on the specifics of their national markets and their readiness to implement the initiative.

The Russian side proposed creating the BRICS Grain Exchange as a unified digital trading platform where producers and buyers of agricultural crops could conclude transactions directly, without the intermediation of external exchange intermediaries. The platform would reflect the actual balance of supply and demand within the BRICS space and allow countries to retain control over their own commodity flows.

"Reducing the number of intermediaries will directly affect the attractiveness of prices for all parties. Today, every additional link in the supply chain builds in its own margin. As a result, the agricultural producer receives less for their product, while the buyer pays more than they would with direct settlements. In this context, the BRICS Grain Exchange is an opportunity for our countries to determine the fair value of their own products themselves," noted Vladimir Ilyichev.

A significant place on the agenda was given to issues of enhancing the resilience of value chains. The ministers approved a relevant work plan, which provides for the creation of a BRICS interdepartmental technical council for the exchange of regulatory practices and monitoring vulnerabilities in value chains, the organization of joint business missions and trade fair and exhibition events, as well as research into promising sectors for launching joint projects.

Special attention was paid to the integration of small and medium-sized enterprises into international supply chains. According to the cited estimates, the global trade finance gap of USD 2.5 trillion hinders the access of SMEs from BRICS countries to external markets. To overcome this, the ministers agreed to work out the issue of creating a BRICS mechanism for invoice discounting for export-oriented SMEs.

"It is often most difficult for small and medium-sized businesses to gain access to working capital precisely at the moment of entering foreign markets. The new mechanism should remove this very barrier," emphasized Vladimir Ilyichev.

Another practical tool for businesses operating in the markets of the member countries was the BRICS SEZ Investment Navigator. The platform was developed by the Association of Clusters, Technoparks and SEZs of Russia together with the Development Corporation of the Nizhny Novgorod Region. It contains data on specialization, preferential regimes, residents, and contact information of special economic zones of the BRICS countries. The service already helps companies establish new sales channels, simplify the search for suppliers and components, and choose the optimal location for production facilities. The parties plan to discuss further development of cooperation between SEZs of the BRICS countries and the expansion of the navigator's functionality on October 21–22 in Moscow at the IV International SEZ Forum.

Iran
Source: nairametrics.com

The BRICS countries are in discussions about integrating their national instant payment systems and central bank digital currencies as a way to reduce the cost and improve the efficiency of cross-border transactions among the group’s member nations.

Reserve Bank of India Governor Sanjay Malhotra disclosed the discussions in comments covered by Brazilian media and reported by TV BRICS.

Malhotra said the integration would bring national financial systems that currently operate independently closer together, creating a more seamless payments infrastructure across economies that collectively represent a significant share of global trade and output.

What they are saying

Malhotra said cross-border payment costs are a shared concern across all BRICS members and that the group sees significant potential in reducing them through deeper financial connectivity.

• NiRA moves to cut .ng domain costs, tighten protection for Nigerian brands
• Nigeria’s renewable energy push is creating new injustices, study finds
• PenCom warns 30% PPP target may be missed as 91% accounts remain unfunded
• “Cross-border payments are of interest to all of us, including the BRICS countries, as we believe there is great potential here for reducing costs,” he said.

He added that the technical parameters of any possible shared infrastructure have not yet been disclosed, and that both the specific integration model and the timeline for implementation remain under discussion.

• India holds the BRICS chairmanship this year and is hosting the group’s annual summit, giving New Delhi significant influence over the agenda for financial integration discussions.
• The Reserve Bank of India had recommended earlier in 2026 that the government include the integration of central bank digital currencies on the agenda of the BRICS summit, signalling India’s intent to push the issue toward a concrete outcome during its chairmanship.

BRICS currently comprises ten countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Iran — with each operating distinct financial systems and national currencies, making the technical and regulatory coordination required for payment integration a significant challenge.

Get up to speed

Nigeria formally joined BRICS as a partner country in January 2025, after the Brazilian government, which held the bloc’s presidency at the time, announced its admission.

Brazil’s Foreign Ministry said Nigeria’s inclusion reflected shared interests in strengthening cooperation among countries of the Global South and advancing reforms to international institutions.

• Nigeria became the ninth BRICS partner country, joining Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Thailand, Uganda and Uzbekistan.
• The partner-country category was created at the 16th BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, in October 2024.
• Brazil said Nigeria’s large population, position as Africa’s most populous country and role in promoting South-South cooperation made it a natural addition to the expanded BRICS framework.
• The partner-country status allows Nigeria and other partner countries to participate in selected BRICS activities and engage with the bloc’s initiatives, potentially opening opportunities in areas such as trade, investment and cross-border financial cooperation.

For Nigeria, the significance of this new development may lie in what comes next. As a BRICS partner country, Nigeria could potentially benefit from a future expansion of the bloc’s payment connectivity if partner countries are incorporated into the system.

What you should know

The development comes about a year after Nigeria reaffirmed its commitment to the BRICS agenda and its broader push for greater financial and multilateral cooperation among emerging economies.
In April 2025, Nigeria’s Foreign Minister, Yusuf Tuggar, expressed the country’s support for BRICS’ efforts to promote a fairer, rules-based international order during the bloc’s Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Tuggar also highlighted Nigeria’s alignment with BRICS’ vision for global financial reform and stronger multilateral cooperation, areas that are now particularly relevant as the bloc explores ways to improve cross-border payments and reduce transaction costs among its members.

Iran
Source: en.mehrnews.com

Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Abdolnasser Hemmati made the proposal on Thursday, the second day of the BRICS financial meetings in India, stressing the need to move financial cooperation within the group beyond general discussions and toward the creation of practical, secure and sustainable infrastructure for cross-border payments and settlements.

Hemmati said connecting national payment networks and expanding the use of national currencies would reduce BRICS members’ reliance on financial channels outside the bloc while helping increase transaction speed, lower costs and improve the security of trade exchanges among member states.

He added that Iran has already begun examining the technical, legal and operational aspects of connecting the payment systems of BRICS members and is ready to cooperate in developing an operational roadmap for the initiative.

The Central Bank governor also said that pursuing Iran’s membership in the New Development Bank (NDB) would help expand financing for development projects, investment cooperation and economic ties among BRICS members.

Bangladesh
Source: weeklyblitz.net

The BRICS bloc is moving closer to establishing a new grain exchange that could significantly reshape global agricultural trade and challenge the long-standing dominance of Western commodity markets. Backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, the proposed BRICS Grain Exchange is envisioned as a unified digital trading platform that would allow agricultural producers and buyers to trade directly, reducing dependence on intermediaries and potentially lowering costs across the supply chain.

The initiative, presented by Russia during a meeting of BRICS economy and trade ministers in Jaipur, India, represents one of the bloc’s most ambitious efforts to strengthen economic cooperation and expand its influence over global commodity markets. If fully implemented, Russian officials estimate that the exchange could eventually facilitate more than $1 trillion in annual trading of agricultural products and related commodities.

According to Russia’s proposal, the BRICS Grain Exchange will operate as a digital platform connecting producers, exporters, importers, and buyers directly. Unlike traditional commodity markets, where multiple intermediaries often participate in transactions, the new system aims to streamline trade by enabling participants to negotiate and settle deals without relying on external brokers or trading houses.

Russian Deputy Economic Development Minister Vladimir Ilyichev described the exchange as an opportunity for BRICS nations to determine the value of their agricultural products independently.

“The BRICS Grain Exchange is an opportunity for our countries to determine the fair value of their products themselves,” Ilyichev said while outlining the proposal.

The concept reflects growing efforts among BRICS members to create alternative financial and commercial institutions capable of supporting trade among emerging economies while reducing reliance on Western-controlled market infrastructure.

A central objective of the proposed exchange is to eliminate unnecessary intermediaries that often increase transaction costs for both producers and consumers.

According to Russian officials, each additional participant in the supply chain typically adds its own profit margin, reducing the income received by farmers while increasing prices paid by buyers. Direct digital trading could help improve price transparency and create more efficient markets for agricultural commodities.

Ilyichev argued that reducing intermediaries would make agricultural trading more attractive for all participants. Farmers could receive higher prices for their harvests, while importers and food processors would benefit from lower purchasing costs.

Such efficiency gains could prove particularly valuable at a time when global food prices remain vulnerable to geopolitical tensions, climate-related disruptions, and logistical challenges affecting international supply chains.

The proposed BRICS Grain Exchange is also viewed as a strategic alternative to Western commodity exchanges that currently dominate global agricultural price discovery.

For decades, benchmark prices for major agricultural commodities-including wheat, corn and soybeans-have largely been established through futures trading on exchanges such as the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) and Euronext.

These institutions play a critical role in determining international commodity prices, influencing trade contracts and financial markets around the world.

Russia believes that establishing a BRICS-based trading platform would provide member countries with greater influence over pricing mechanisms and reduce dependence on Western financial infrastructure.

The initiative comes amid broader efforts by BRICS nations to strengthen economic cooperation through alternative payment systems, financial institutions and trade mechanisms designed to increase resilience against geopolitical and economic disruptions.

The proposal is supported by the considerable agricultural strength of BRICS members.

Collectively, BRICS countries account for approximately 42 percent of global agricultural and food production. The bloc includes some of the world’s largest producers and consumers of agricultural commodities, including Brazil, Russia, India and China.

In addition, BRICS nations are home to more than two-thirds of the world’s small and marginal farmers, making agricultural development a shared economic priority.

Russia and Brazil rank among the world’s leading grain exporters, while India is one of the largest producers of rice, wheat and pulses. China remains the world’s largest importer of several agricultural commodities, creating substantial opportunities for intra-BRICS trade.

The diversity of agricultural production within the bloc offers the potential for greater food security through expanded regional cooperation and more efficient trade networks.

Russia’s Union of Grain Exporters and Producers, which first proposed the exchange in 2023, estimates that annual trading volumes could eventually exceed $1 trillion when agricultural commodities and related products are included.

President Putin endorsed the initiative in 2024, suggesting that the platform could gradually evolve beyond grain into a comprehensive commodity exchange covering multiple agricultural products.

Such an expansion could eventually include oilseeds, vegetable oils, fertilizers, livestock products and other food commodities, creating one of the world’s largest integrated agricultural trading ecosystems.

If realized, the exchange would represent a major milestone in BRICS’ broader strategy of increasing economic integration and expanding trade among emerging markets.

India, which currently holds the rotating BRICS presidency, has emerged as a key participant in advancing the initiative.

The proposal was discussed during last week’s meeting of BRICS economy and trade ministers in Jaipur, where member states reviewed their respective positions and assessed their readiness to implement the project.

India will also host the BRICS Leaders’ Summit on September 12-13, where the grain exchange is expected to receive further political attention alongside discussions on trade, investment, financial cooperation and sustainable development.

As one of the world’s largest agricultural producers and consumers, India’s participation will be essential to the long-term success of the proposed platform.

While the proposed exchange presents significant opportunities, several challenges remain before it can become operational.

Participating countries will need to agree on common trading standards, quality certification systems, settlement mechanisms, dispute resolution procedures and digital infrastructure. Currency settlement arrangements may also become an important issue, particularly if member states seek to reduce dependence on the US dollar in cross-border transactions.

Building trust among market participants will be equally important. International buyers and sellers typically rely on transparent pricing, strong regulatory oversight and efficient contract enforcement. Establishing these elements will be critical if the BRICS Grain Exchange hopes to compete with established global commodity exchanges.

Infrastructure, logistics and transportation networks must also support increased intra-BRICS agricultural trade. Investments in ports, storage facilities, railways and digital technologies could become essential components of the broader initiative.

The proposed BRICS Grain Exchange reflects a broader transformation underway in the global economic landscape, where emerging economies are seeking greater influence over international trade and financial systems.

By leveraging their combined agricultural strength, BRICS nations hope to create a more diversified and resilient marketplace that offers producers and buyers greater flexibility, improved pricing transparency and reduced transaction costs.

Whether the exchange ultimately achieves its ambitious goal of surpassing $1 trillion in annual turnover will depend on sustained political commitment, technological development and broad participation from both public and private sectors.

Nevertheless, the initiative signals that BRICS is increasingly looking beyond political cooperation toward building practical economic institutions capable of reshaping global commerce. If successfully implemented, the BRICS Grain Exchange could become one of the most significant developments in international agricultural trade in the coming decade, offering member countries a stronger voice in determining the future of global food markets while providing an alternative to traditional Western commodity exchanges.

Ethiopia
Source: www.fanamc.com

Addis Ababa, August 13, 2026 (FMC) — Ethiopia has pressed for greater representation of emerging and developing economies in the global financial system as it participated in the BRICS Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ Meeting held in Jaipur, India, on July 12–13, 2026.

During the meeting, held under India’s 2026 BRICS Chairship, Ethiopia emphasized the need to strengthen financial resilience, development finance and cooperation among emerging and developing economies amid mounting global economic challenges. The Ethiopian delegation highlighted rising debt, limited fiscal space, high borrowing costs, climate-related shocks and financial fragmentation as challenges requiring stronger collective responses.

Ethiopia also advocated deeper BRICS cooperation in trade, investment and financial systems, alongside expanded knowledge-sharing and access to innovative development financing through BRICS institutions and platforms. It further emphasized capacity building and closer cooperation on financial infrastructure among central banks.

As Ethiopia advances toward accession to the New Development Bank (NDB), the delegation welcomed closer alignment between NDB financing and broader BRICS development initiatives, underscoring the importance of stronger institutional cooperation in expanding development financing for emerging and developing economies.

Singapore
Source: www.thejakartapost.com

JAKARTA – The BRICS trade ministers’ meeting ended without a joint statement despite reaching agreement on “most agenda items”, Trade Minister Budi Santoso said in a statement on Saturday, underscoring the difficulty of forging a common position within the group as geopolitical tensions reshape global trade.

The ministerial-level meeting was held in Jaipur, India, on Aug. 6-7, focusing on several areas, including strengthening an open, inclusive and rules-based trading system with the World Trade Organization at its core. The group also pushed to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) go global and build resilient global value chains to support market opening and economic diversification among members.

“Indonesia stresses the importance of maintaining a rules-based multilateral trading system through a strong, inclusive and adaptive WTO. At the same time, the BRICS need to continue delivering concrete cooperation that directly benefits the growth of developing countries,” Budi said.

As the bloc’s newest and nonaligned member, Indonesia called on BRICS to pursue cooperation that “could deliver the greatest benefits” for its members, while warning against the risks of a more fragmented global economy.

Although Budi said the response was a natural form of self-protection amid growing uncertainty, he warned that countries should remain mindful of the risks of growing global fragmentation.

“We must continue to consider the risks behind it. The world could become increasingly divided, fragile and less able to address common challenges,” Budi added.

The trade ministers discussed the Jaipur Consensus, which calls for examining mechanisms for BRICS invoice discounting and credit assessment, with Indonesia stressing the need for better access to finance for small businesses seeking to export.

The ministers also backed completing the Strategy for BRICS Economic Partnership 2030, a framework covering multilateral trade system, services, industry and sustainable development that will guide sectoral strategies and economic cooperation through the end of the decade.

Separately, Indonesia participated in the BRICS Industry Ministers’ Meeting, where it discussed industrial cooperation priorities under the BRICS Partnership on New Industrial Revolution (PartNIR).

Global industrial resilience could no longer depend solely on a country’s investment or production capacity and collaboration is key in maintaining industrial competitiveness, Deputy Industry Minister Faisol Riza said in separate statement.

The meeting focused on SME development, startups, industrial logistics and solar panel manufacturing, while Indonesia also identified opportunities with BRICS members in green industries, semiconductors and agribusiness.

“These areas are important to strengthen industrial resilience and boost manufacturing competitiveness in the future,” Faisol said, adding that Indonesia was ready to pursue concrete cooperation through the group.

BRICS, originally formed by Brazil, Russia, India and China and later joined by South Africa, now has 11 members after its expansion to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia.

China is set to assume the rotating BRICS chair and host the major summit next year, putting the world’s second-largest economy at the center of efforts to steer the expanded bloc’s economic agenda.

India Trade and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said BRICS members had made progress in strengthening trade and economic cooperation during India’s year-long chairmanship, and expressed hope that those efforts would continue when Beijing takes over the chairmanship in 2027.

Stalled deal with Mercosur

Separately, Indonesia has sought a preferential trade agreement (PTA) with South America’s Mercosur bloc as negotiations for a broader Indonesia-Mercosur Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IEU-CEPA) made little progress.

Together, the bloc represents a 295 million-strong market and a $3 trillion economy, spanning Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia and currently suspended Venezuela.

Internal political dynamics and differing economic priorities among Mercosur members had historically slowed momentum for a comprehensive pact, Budi said, adding that the narrower agreement could eventually develop into a broader economic partnership.

Under the new proposal, Jakarta views Brazil as a regional beachhead for Indonesian manufactured goods, while offering Southeast Asia’s largest consumer market as a gateway for Brazilian commodities.

Unlike a full-scale CEPA, a PTA offers immediate, targeted tariff reductions or exemptions on select goods without requiring broader institutional alignment.

Indonesia and Mercosur officially agreed to a framework to begin negotiating the Indonesia-Mercosur CEPA in end of 2021 in a bid to boost exports to nontraditional markets outside the United States and China, with President Prabowo Subianto and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to push to accelerate the CEPA talks under Brazil’s regional presidency last year.

Beyond Mercosur, Indonesia has been steadily widening its trade footprint in the region, signing a CEPA with Chile in 2017 and another with Peru last year.

Nigeria
Source: www.cnbcafrica.com

Key Points

• Iran is set to join the BRICS New Development Bank, the country’s central bank chief said Thursday.
• Iran would have to move through the NDB’s accession process before it can become an official member country.
• The war with the U.S. and Israel has further ramped up the pressure on the Iranian economy, with inflation surging, growth plummeting and its currency in freefall.

Iran is set to join the BRICS New Development Bank, the country’s central bank chief said Thursday, as Tehran seeks to shore up its economic alliances almost six months into its war with the U.S. and Israel.

The BRICS alliance was set up in 2006 by founding members Brazil, Russia, India and China, with South Africa joining in 2010.

It has since expanded to include Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Indonesia, with various other nations — including Belarus, Cuba and Nigeria — joining as partner countries.

Iranian state media reported Thursday that Abdolnasser Hemmati, governor of the Central Bank of Iran, had announced Iran would soon become a member of the BRICS Bank. Hemmati is currently in India ahead of next month’s BRICS Summit, according to Iran’s Tasnim News Agency.

“We are seeking to establish bilateral and trilateral monetary cooperation with member states,” Hemmati said, per Tasnim’s report.

The NDB was established by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa to help mobilize resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in emerging markets and developing countries.

A spokesperson for the NDB told CNBC the bank cannot confirm information regarding Iran’s membership.

“NDB membership is open to members of the United Nations. The Bank’s membership is open to borrowing and non-borrowing member countries,” they said. “NDB recently welcomed Uzbekistan as its tenth member country, which officially joined the Bank on June 5, 2026.”

Iran would have to move through the NDB’s accession process before it can become an official member country. Current prospective members are Uruguay, Colombia, Ethiopia, Angola and Zimbabwe.

Joining the bank would make Iran eligible to seek financing for projects in areas such as transport, sanitation, digital infrastructure and urban development.
Longstanding sanctions on Iran have severely constrained its access to international capital, particularly from Western financial institutions and markets. The war with the U.S. and Israel has further ramped up the pressure on the Iranian economy, with inflation surging, growth plummeting and its currency in freefall.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who has previously labeled BRICS policies “anti-American,” has threatened to slap 25% tariffs on goods imported to the U.S. from any country that directly or indirectly purchases goods or services from Iran.

CNBC reached out to the White House for comment on Iran joining the BRICS bank.

China is Iran’s biggest trading partner, according to the World Bank’s most recent data. In 2025, China bought more than 80% of Iran’s shipped oil, according to Kpler data.

It is unclear whether that trading relationship has shifted since the U.S.-Iran war began.

Iran
Source: www.tasnimnews.ir

Addis Ababa, August 13, 2026 (FMC) — Ethiopia has pressed for greater representation of emerging and developing economies in the global financial system as it participated in the BRICS Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ Meeting held in Jaipur, India, on July 12–13, 2026.

During the meeting, held under India’s 2026 BRICS Chairship, Ethiopia emphasized the need to strengthen financial resilience, development finance and cooperation among emerging and developing economies amid mounting global economic challenges. The Ethiopian delegation highlighted rising debt, limited fiscal space, high borrowing costs, climate-related shocks and financial fragmentation as challenges requiring stronger collective responses.

Ethiopia also advocated deeper BRICS cooperation in trade, investment and financial systems, alongside expanded knowledge-sharing and access to innovative development financing through BRICS institutions and platforms. It further emphasized capacity building and closer cooperation on financial infrastructure among central banks.

As Ethiopia advances toward accession to the New Development Bank (NDB), the delegation welcomed closer alignment between NDB financing and broader BRICS development initiatives, underscoring the importance of stronger institutional cooperation in expanding development financing for emerging and developing economies.

USA
Source: www.reuters.com

MUMBAI, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Members of the BRICS group of nations are discussing potential linkages between their respective fast payment systems and central ​bank digital currencies, Reserve Bank of India Governor Sanjay ‌Malhotra said at an event on Tuesday.

The BRICS organisation includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, among others. India is hosting the 2026 edition ​of the annual summit.

"Cross-border payments is an area of interest ​for all of us, including the BRICS, because we ⁠feel there is a lot of scope for reducing cost," Malhotra ​said in Mumbai.

"Various options are on the table, but it is ​still at discussion stage, including CBDCs (central bank digital currencies) and linkages of fast payment systems," he added.

Reuters reported earlier this year that the RBI recommended to the government ​that a proposal to connect CBDCs be included in the agenda ​for the 2026 BRICS summit.

The central bank will also continue its efforts to ‌internationalize ⁠the rupee and promote the use of local currencies for cross-border payments and trade, Malhotra said.

The governor also said that the RBI sees artificial intelligence as a capability to be harnessed ​and not just ​a risk ⁠that needs to be contained.

"Indian banks cannot afford to sit on the sidelines and watch," he said, ​urging lenders to inventory all AI models in ​use and ⁠establish board-approved AI governance policies.

Central banks globally have been paying close attention to lenders’ usage of AI amid worries over cyberattacks alongside operational ⁠and ​governance risks.

"Innovation and safety are not ​opposing goals, they are in fact complementary requirements of a durable financial system," Malhotra said.

India
Source: pib.gov.in

BRICS economies represent major growth engines of the global economy, and face common structural constraints in mobilising private capital at scale: FM Smt. Sitharaman

Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman delivered the Keynote Address at the Seminar on “The Role of the New Development Bank in Mobilising Private Capital in Member Countries”, on the sidelines of the BRICS Finance Minsters’ and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) Meeting, being held in Jaipur, today.

H.E. Ms. Dilma Rousseff delivered a special address, with participation of Ms. Anuradha Thakur, Secretary, D/o Economic Affairs (DEA), Ministry of Finance; and Mr. Vijay Sankar, Senior Vice President, FICCI.

In her Keynote Address, the Union Finance Minister set the context by highlighting the critical role the Multilateral Development Banks play in de-risking investments, enhancing project bankability, and strengthening investor confidence so that private capital can be mobilised at scale.

Speaking of India’s experience, Smt. Sitharaman said that Government of India has strengthened its infrastructure ecosystem through sustained public capital expenditure and complementary structural reforms. Public investment has expanded significantly compared to a decade ago, reflecting a deliberate strategy to create productive national assets across highways, railways, ports, logistics systems, digital infrastructure, and energy networks, She said.

FM Smt. Sitharaman stated that the Government of India believes that public capital must act as a catalyst — not a substitute for private investment, and in support of this principle, Government of India has carried out multiple reforms:

• Viability Gap Funding (VGF) to support financially constrained but socially desirable projects;
• Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM) to ensure balanced risk-sharing in road infrastructure.
• Credit enhancement mechanisms to improve project bankability;
• Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs) to recycle capital and attract long-term institutional investors;
• The National Infrastructure Pipeline, providing long-term visibility to investors;
• PM Gati Shakti – National Master Plan for Multimodal Connectivity, improving coordination and efficiency

Building on this foundation, the Union Finance Minister informed that the Union Budget 2026-27 introduced several targeted measures to facilitate private sector investment including:

• New Dedicated Freight Corridors
• New High-Speed Rail Corridors
• To operationalise new National Waterways, and
• A Coastal Cargo Promotion Scheme

FM Smt. Sitharaman recognised that while BRICS economies represent major growth engines of the global economy, they also face common structural constraints in mobilising private capital at scale. The challenge is not merely the availability of capital, but the creation of confidence, stability, predictability, and credible long-term frameworks which are essential to unlock sustained private participation across member countries.

The Union Finance Minister concluded her Keynote Address by emphasising that the future of development finance lies in partnership. multilateral institutions, national governments, and the private sector each bring distinct strengths.

In her welcome address earlier, Secretary, D/o Economic Affairs, Smt. Anuradha Thakur stated that the seminar being today is particularly relevant as development finance moves into a phase where scale must be matched with resilience. Capital mobilisation cannot depend solely on favourable conditions; it must be anchored in frameworks that endure. Strengthening such frameworks is where multilateral collaboration can add lasting value.

The seminar brought together senior policymakers, multilateral institutions and private-sector leaders, and was followed by a deep-dive panel discussion by IRDAI Chairman Shri Ajay Seth; NDB Vice-President Mr. Roman Serov; Mr. Alessandro Teixeira from the Sertrading; Tencent Senior Advisor Mr. Yongping Zhai; Mr. Pankaj Sindwani from the Tata Capital Decarbonisation Fund; and along with other representatives from BRICS countries, financial institutions, think tanks and academia.

China
Source: www.china.org.cn

JOHANNESBURG, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- Deeper cooperation between South Africa and China in energy investment, electricity infrastructure and equipment manufacturing could open new opportunities for South Africa's energy transition and industrial development, a South African energy expert has said.

Nndwamato Tom Tonic Mutshidza, former president of the Association of Municipal Electricity Utilities, said in an interview with Xinhua that South Africa-China energy cooperation would strengthen the strategic relationship between the two countries within the BRICS framework and support South Africa's energy transition agenda.

Noting China's extensive expertise in renewable energy, battery energy storage, grid infrastructure and equipment manufacturing, Mutshidza said these areas present substantial opportunities for bilateral cooperation as South Africa endeavors to tackle challenges throughout its electricity sector.

South Africa abounds in solar and wind resources, particularly in the Northern Cape and coastal regions, but the country's transmission network needs substantial expansion to connect new generation capacity with major centers of electricity demand, he said.

Mutshidza said that South Africa could leverage China's investment and advanced technology to strengthen the country's transmission infrastructure and promote energy transition.

The expert said South Africa's Integrated Resource Plan 2025, which envisages a diversified energy mix comprising renewable energy, nuclear power and lower-carbon generation technologies, provides greater space for cooperation with China and other international investors.

"As South Africa advances its energy transition, manufacturing growth will be essential to addressing unemployment, poverty and underdevelopment. Partnerships that promote investment, technology transfer and industrial development will be important in achieving these objectives," he said.

Looking ahead, Mutshidza said South Africa-China energy cooperation could expand beyond renewable energy into areas such as hydrogen, advanced manufacturing and other emerging energy technologies, further broadening the scope of bilateral economic cooperation.

South Africa
Source: iol.co.za

The escalating conflict in the Middle East represents more than a regional security crisis. It has become a significant geopolitical test for BRICS, expanding beyond its original five members to include key Middle Eastern powers such as Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The conflict is forcing the grouping to navigate increasingly complex political realities while attempting to preserve its vision of greater multipolar cooperation.

China's Strategic Diplomacy

One of the most significant questions is China's role. Despite its close strategic partnership with Iran, Beijing is unlikely to become directly involved militarily. China's primary strategic priorities remain Taiwan and the South China Sea, where it continues to concentrate its military and diplomatic resources. A major military commitment in the Middle East would divert attention and resources from these core national interests.

Equally important, China has cultivated strong economic and diplomatic relationships not only with Iran, but also with Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other Gulf states. Preserving those relationships is likely to remain a higher priority than becoming directly involved in the conflict.

This balancing act reflects one of BRICS' greatest strengths, but also one of its greatest vulnerabilities. The expanded grouping now includes countries with diverse interests, alliances and security concerns. While BRICS has positioned itself as a platform for cooperation among emerging economies, conflicts involving member states or close regional partners inevitably place pressure on the bloc's internal cohesion.

Regional Fragmentation and Economic Consequences

Some geopolitical analysts argue that the current conflict risks fragmenting relationships across the Middle East. They contend that Iranian retaliation against Israel, together with attacks affecting neighbouring states including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait, has exposed political divisions within the region. According to this view, prolonged instability could weaken broader regional cooperation and, by extension, complicate collaboration within an expanded BRICS framework.

The conflict also carries significant economic implications. BRICS today includes some of the world's largest economies, including China, India and Russia, together with several of the world's leading energy producers such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Any prolonged instability affecting energy production, shipping routes or investment confidence has the potential to influence not only regional economies but also the wider BRICS economic agenda.

This comes at a time when BRICS continues to grow in global influence. The bloc represents a substantial share of the world's population, economic output and natural resources, and has increasingly positioned itself as an advocate for a more balanced international order. The expansion of BRICS into the Middle East has further strengthened its strategic importance by bringing together major energy exporters alongside some of the world's fastest-growing emerging markets.

Lessons from History and the Road Ahead

The geopolitical importance of BRICS has not gone unnoticed. In recent years, Western policymakers have expressed growing concern about the bloc's expanding economic influence and its efforts to strengthen cooperation in trade, finance and development. The growing prominence of BRICS has placed the organisation at the centre of discussions about the future of global governance and the evolution of a more multipolar international system.

History provides important lessons. During the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, the United States provided significant support to Saddam Hussein's Iraq as a counterweight to revolutionary Iran. Years later, the US-led invasion of Iraq fundamentally altered the regional balance of power, while the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan contributed to prolonged instability that enabled extremist organisations to flourish. These experiences continue to shape regional perceptions of external military intervention and inform contemporary debates over the potential consequences of any wider conflict involving Iran.

Ultimately, the greatest challenge for BRICS is not simply managing the immediate crisis but demonstrating that a diverse coalition of major emerging powers can remain united despite differing national interests. If the bloc can continue promoting dialogue, economic cooperation and diplomatic engagement while avoiding internal fragmentation, it will reinforce its credibility as an influential force in shaping the future international order.

The Middle East conflict therefore represents more than another regional confrontation. It is a defining test of whether BRICS can transform its growing economic weight into meaningful geopolitical cohesion. The decisions made by its members in the months ahead may shape not only the future of the organisation, but also the balance of power within an increasingly multipolar world.

South Africa
Source: iol.co.za

WITH only a few weeks left before BRICS leaders meet in India, one proposal has become the most important, and possibly the most difficult, agenda item of the summit: connecting the countries' fast-payment systems and their digital currencies (CBDCs).

Proposed by India as this year's BRICS host, this is no longer just a technical suggestion. It has become the sharpest measure yet of whether BRICS can convert its long-declared ambition for a multipolar financial order into concrete, working infrastructure, or whether the gap between statement and substance will once again prove decisive.

The proposal in plain terms

Simply put, BRICS nations want to build a digital bridge between their domestic payment networks. Today, if Brazil wants to pay South Africa for goods, that money often travels through US banks, takes days to clear, and incurs fees of 3–5%.

The proposed system would allow direct, near-instant settlements in local currencies, using blockchain-like technology to ensure both sides get paid simultaneously, without a middleman. No single currency is replaced; instead, each nation's digital money learns to "speak" to the others.

But why does this matter so much to India? And what is at stake for each BRICS member?

For India: in April 2025, India overtook Japan to become the world's fourth-largest economy. One year later, it has slipped to sixth place, behind both Japan and the United Kingdom. India's nominal GDP stood at roughly $3.92 trillion, down from earlier projections of $4.18 trillion.

What changed was not India's economic fundamentals — the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reports that India remains the world's fastest-growing major economy. The culprit was the rupee's slide against the US dollar amid conflict in the Middle East. Since the outbreak of the US-Iran war in late February 2026, the rupee has depreciated by nearly 5% against the dollar, breaching ₹96 by mid-May, a record low. Because IMF rankings measure nominal GDP in dollars, a weaker rupee mechanically shrinks India's dollar-denominated GDP. The IMF itself explicitly cited the rupee's continuous depreciation, caused by the Middle East situation, as the reason for the downgrade.

The BRICS dilemma: a shared vulnerability

India's predicament is not unique — it is a warning to every BRICS member. The bloc is disproportionately exposed to dollar-denominated energy trade and US financial infrastructure. When Middle East tensions spike, every BRICS economy feels the shock through higher oil prices, capital outflows and currency depreciation.

Russia faces sanctions that cut it off from SWIFT. China sees higher manufacturing costs and reduced export competitiveness when oil rises. Brazil, South Africa, Egypt and Ethiopia all grapple with dollar shortages and currency volatility.

This is precisely why the payment-system interconnectivity proposal, tabled by India, has taken on such urgent weight. The war has exposed a fundamental truth: BRICS nations remain captive to a financial system they do not control. A multi-CBDC bridge, or linked fast-payment rails, would allow direct settlements in local currencies, bypassing the dollar as an intermediary — shielding members from the kind of currency-driven ranking dilemma India has just endured.

Critically, this is not about a common BRICS currency, an idea that has divided the bloc and drawn US tariff threats. It is about functional de-dollarisation: building alternative infrastructure so that when the next crisis hits, BRICS nations can keep trading without watching their GDP rankings evaporate overnight.

What the West is saying

As the countdown ticks away, global financial observers are paying close attention. The US Treasury has privately expressed concern, while the IMF has offered technical assistance, hedging its bets. If BRICS succeeds in building this bridge, it could inspire similar blocs — ASEAN, the Gulf Cooperation Council — to follow suit, accelerating a slow but steady shift away from dollar-centric global finance.
If it fails, or if the summit produces only vague promises, that will reinforce the view that BRICS is a talk shop, not a true coalition. Member nations are acutely aware of this perception, which is precisely why the payment agenda, despite its technical challenges, carries such heavy political weight.

A payment system does not carry the political baggage of a common BRICS currency, which would openly challenge the dollar and invite US retaliation. Instead, India frames this as "functional efficiency," not "confrontational de-dollarisation."

With days to go before the summit, the payment agenda is no longer just a technical discussion. It is a test of whether BRICS can translate shared vulnerability into a shared solution. India's fall from fourth to sixth place is not an aberration; it is a preview of the crisis confronting the Global South. The question is whether the bloc will act before the next crisis writes an even starker lesson.

The proposal itself is not a formal treaty but a "discussion paper" submitted by the RBI, with input from China's digital-yuan team and Russia's finance ministry. It will be tabled as a non-binding declaration during the summit's financial track, with a mandate for a joint working group to produce interoperability standards within 18 months. No timeline for a live pilot has been set — deliberately, to keep the US and EU from viewing it as an immediate challenge to the dollar's hegemony.

A functional BRICS payment link could of course ease balance-of-payments pressure overnight, provided members can meet the technical and regulatory standards required. But the symbolism is unmistakable: BRICS is moving from rhetoric to infrastructure.

Yet, for all the rupee's bruises and the GDP ranking slip, India arrives at the summit table not as a victim, but as a tactician. It is precisely this crisis that has sharpened New Delhi's diplomatic edge. Hosting the BRICS summit in the wake of a Middle East war that directly devalued its currency could have been a diplomatic nightmare. Instead, India has turned it into a strategic opportunity, offering a solution that serves every member's self-interest without demanding they choose sides.

Russia gets its sanctions workaround. China gets a testing ground for the digital yuan. Brazil and South Africa get de-dollarisation without the political fireworks. Egypt and Ethiopia get relief from the dollar famine their countries face.

This is classic Indian diplomacy: pragmatic, non-confrontational and quietly ambitious. The message from New Delhi is clear — BRICS does not need to shout about replacing the dollar; it needs to quietly build the infrastructure.

In this sense, India's fall from fourth to sixth place is not the story of the summit — its response to that fall is. By convening a divided bloc, offering a unifying agenda and resisting the urge to grandstand, India has shown that its influence extends far beyond its GDP ranking. The rupee may have dipped, but India's geopolitical currency is soaring. India is reminding the world that in a multipolar era, diplomatic prowess can outweigh even the mighty dollar's pull, without a single confrontational word.
* Phapano Phasha is the chairperson of The Centre for Alternative Political and Economic Thought.

Greece
Source: moderndiplomacy.eu

Iran is set to join the New Development Bank (NDB), the development lender established by the BRICS group, Iranian central bank governor Abdolnaser Hemmati said on Wednesday, as Tehran seeks to deepen financial ties with emerging economies amid sweeping international sanctions.

Hemmati made the remarks ahead of a BRICS finance ministers and central bank governors meeting hosted by India, which holds the group’s rotating chairmanship this year.

Iran joined BRICS in 2024 as part of the bloc’s expansion and has since expressed interest in becoming a member and shareholder of the NDB. The bank was established in 2015 by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa to finance infrastructure and sustainable development projects.

“The most important result of cooperation among BRICS member countries is the establishment of the New Development Bank, and our country will soon become a member of this bank,” Hemmati said, according to Iranian state media.

Iran Seeks Alternative Financial Channels

Membership of the NDB would give Iran another avenue for economic cooperation outside traditional Western dominated financial institutions, although the extent of any benefit would depend on the bank’s ability to operate with a heavily sanctioned Iranian economy.

Iran remains under extensive U.S. and international sanctions and has yet to reach a peace agreement to end its current conflict with the United States and Israel. These pressures have increased Tehran’s incentive to strengthen economic relationships with non-Western powers and reduce its exposure to dollar based financial systems.

The NDB has expanded beyond its original five members to include countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, increasing its role as a financial institution connecting emerging economies.

BRICS Pushes for Local Currency Trade

Hemmati also said Iran supported greater use of national currencies in trade among BRICS members.

BRICS countries have increasingly promoted mechanisms intended to reduce dependence on the U.S. dollar, including greater use of national currencies for bilateral trade and financial transactions.
Iran is also seeking bilateral and trilateral monetary cooperation with other BRICS members, Hemmati said.

A Strategic Financial Move for Tehran

Iran’s expected entry into the NDB is significant not simply as a development financing decision but as part of Tehran’s broader effort to build an alternative economic network amid Western sanctions.

For Iran, deeper integration with BRICS could provide additional channels for investment, infrastructure cooperation and financial transactions while strengthening economic ties with major emerging powers such as China, India and Russia. However, membership alone will not remove the restrictions created by U.S. sanctions or guarantee access to international capital.

The move also reflects the broader evolution of BRICS from an economic grouping into a platform through which its members can challenge aspects of the Western dominated financial order. Iran’s participation strengthens that trend, particularly as the group promotes greater use of local currencies and seeks to diversify international financial relationships.

For Tehran, therefore, joining the NDB would represent both an economic opportunity and a geopolitical signal: Iran is seeking to reduce its vulnerability to Western financial pressure by embedding itself more deeply within emerging non-Western economic institutions.

With information from Reuters.

South Africa
Source: iol.co.za

When President Xi Jinping stood before heads of state and international delegates on the banks of the Huangpu River on July 17, 2026, he was not merely opening another technology conference. He was proposing an alternative architecture for how the world governs one of the most consequential technologies of this century.

In his keynote address at the opening of the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) and the High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance in Shanghai, titled "Joining Hands to Build a Just and Equitable System for Global AI Governance," he laid out a vision that fused domestic industrial ambition with a deliberate, structured appeal to the Global South. A day earlier, twenty-nine countries had already signed the agreement that established the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO), a new Shanghai-headquartered intergovernmental body billed as the world's first dedicated exclusively to AI cooperation and governance.

Taken together, the speech and the new organisation mark a significant moment in the global contest over who writes the rules for artificial intelligence, and how.

Seventy years on: Framing the moment

Xi opened his address with a historical anchor, invoking the Dartmouth Workshop of 1956, where a small group of American scholars first coined the term "artificial intelligence." Seven decades later, he argued, the world stands at a similarly formative juncture, except this time the stakes are civilisational rather than academic. He then described a period of accelerating technological revolution and industrial transformation, in which intelligent connectivity, human-machine collaboration and cross-sector integration are unleashing what he called enormous power, carrying with it both extraordinary opportunity and serious governance challenges.

He framed the challenge through four unresolved questions that he suggested humanity must now answer together: how to coexist with thinking machines, how to secure decision-making processes in which algorithms play a growing role, how to manage the ethical dilemmas that adaptive technologies generate, and how to ensure AI benefits everyone as the divide between AI-rich and AI-poor nations continues to widen. These are not rhetorical flourishes. They are reflective of a genuine anxiety, shared across capitals from Pretoria to Jakarta to Brasília, that the AI revolution could replicate or worsen the inequities of earlier waves of industrialisation, in which technological leadership concentrated wealth and strategic power in a small number of countries.

Four pillars of China's governance vision

Xi's address was structured around four observations that together sketch a comprehensive governance philosophy, and it is worth examining each on its own terms.

The first was a call for openness and win-win cooperation to drive innovation. Xi urged countries to embrace open source development, collaborative research and shared application of AI across traditional industries, emerging sectors and future industries alike, so that the benefits of the technology are not confined to a handful of firms or nations. This is consistent with China's own domestic trajectory. Beijing has pursued an unusually open-source-heavy AI strategy relative to the United States, with Chinese firms such as DeepSeek, Alibaba's Qwen and Zhipu AI releasing openly licensed large language models that have found significant uptake among developers in Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America, precisely the markets least able to afford the compute costs and licensing fees associated with proprietary Western models.

The second pillar concerned risk-awareness and controllability. Xi called for laws, regulations, technological monitoring, early-warning mechanisms and emergency-response systems capable of preventing misuse and ensuring that AI remains, in his words, always under human control. Notably, he also urged countries to jointly oppose the overstretching of national security concepts in the AI field, an unmistakable reference to the export controls, chip restrictions and investment screening measures that the United States and its allies have applied to Chinese AI firms in recent years. This is a governance framework that is simultaneously cautious about AI's technical risks and pointed in its critique of what Beijing regards as the securitisation of technology policy by Washington.

The third pillar, inclusiveness and mutual learning between civilisations, reflects a theme that has run through Chinese foreign policy discourse for some years, tracing back to the Global Civilization Initiative Xi first proposed in 2023. Applied to AI, the argument is that the values embedded in algorithms should reflect humanity's shared and diverse ethical traditions rather than the norms of any single civilisation, an implicit rejoinder to concerns that AI systems trained predominantly on Western data and built by Western firms risk encoding a narrow set of cultural assumptions as universal defaults.

The fourth pillar, solidarity and improved global governance, is where the speech turned from principle to institution-building. Xi called for genuine multilateralism, a stronger role for the United Nations, and closer alignment on AI development strategies, governance rules and technical standards, so that a consensus-based global governance framework can be established without delay. He was explicit that this must include capacity-building support for Global South countries, framed not as charity but as a way of preventing what he termed a new historical injustice in AI, a phrase that deliberately echoes the language often used to describe the colonial-era extraction of resources and technology from the developing world.

China's domestic foundations

Xi did not present these principles in a vacuum. He grounded them in China's own record, noting that this year marks the beginning of China's 15th Five-Year Plan, which he said maps out the country's economic and social development for the next five years and creates opportunities for the wider international community. He pointed to the interplay between an efficient market and a well-functioning government as the basis for China's AI innovation strategy, and highlighted that the country's core smart economy industries are now valued at more than one trillion renminbi, roughly 140 billion US dollars at current exchange rates, with intelligent manufacturing cited as a defining feature of what Chinese officials describe as Chinese-style modernisation.

He was careful, too, to stress that this growth has not come at the expense of governance discipline. China, he said, continues to refine its laws, regulations, policies, application norms and ethical principles so that AI development proceeds safely, securely and in a manner that remains, in his own metaphor, a fine steed that gallops with both speed and stability. This balance between rapid deployment and regulatory caution is one that many governments, including South Africa's own policymakers currently working through the Presidential Artificial Intelligence Industry Masterplan, will recognise as a live and unresolved tension in their own contexts.

From initiative to institution: The birth of WAICO

The most consequential development to emerge from Shanghai was not the speech itself but the institution it endorsed. Since 2023, Xi has been building toward this moment through a sequence of proposals: the Global AI Governance Initiative, a United Nations General Assembly resolution on international cooperation for AI capacity building adopted by consensus, the AI Capacity-Building Action Plan for Good and for All, and the AI Plus International Cooperation Initiative. On 16 July, the day before Xi's keynote, representatives of twenty-nine countries signed the agreement formally establishing WAICO in Shanghai, with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi signing on behalf of the Chinese government.

The founding membership is a revealing document in itself. It spans Asia, Africa, Latin America and parts of Europe, and includes South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, Senegal, Algeria, Cameroon, Congo, Lesotho, Mozambique, alongside Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Russia and others. It is, as several international commentators have noted, a membership list that maps closely onto China's existing network of Belt and Road and BRICS-adjacent partnerships. No G7 country and no major Western AI power joined as a founding member, underscoring that WAICO is positioned less as a universal successor to bodies like the OECD's AI governance frameworks and more as a Global South-anchored alternative institution, open in principle to all states but built, in its first iteration, on the foundations of China's existing diplomatic relationships.

South Africa's participation as a founding member is significant for Pretoria's own positioning. It places South Africa, alongside Kenya, Rwanda and Nigeria, among the African states best placed to help shape emerging global AI rules at an early stage, rather than simply receiving standards set elsewhere. Given South Africa's simultaneous roles in BRICS, the G20 and the African Union, its WAICO membership offers a potential channel for aligning continental AI priorities, including those set out in the African Union's Continental AI Strategy, with the capacity-building resources China has pledged.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres attended the signing ceremony and the WAIC opening in person, a detail Chinese state media were quick to highlight as validation of the initiative's multilateral credentials. In his remarks, Guterres and the other heads of state and government present, including Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, praised China's contribution to global AI governance and echoed the call for AI benefits to be shared equitably, bridging what Xi described as both the AI divide and the broader North-South development gap.

Concrete commitments, not just principles

What distinguished this year's WAIC from previous editions was the specificity of the deliverables Xi announced, moving the Global AI Governance Initiative from declaratory principle to measurable commitment. Over the next five years, China will offer developing countries 5,000 training and seminar opportunities in AI. It will establish AI application cooperation centres jointly with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the League of Arab States, the African Union, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and BRICS. And it will extend access to MAZU, China's AI-powered meteorological early-warning system, to thirty countries, a practical application with obvious relevance for African nations grappling with climate volatility and extreme weather events.

These commitments matter because they translate an otherwise abstract governance debate into infrastructure, training pipelines and applied tools that developing economies can use immediately. For a continent such as Africa, where compute infrastructure, cloud capacity and AI talent pipelines remain thin relative to global demand, the offer of structured cooperation centres and training slots addresses a real and frequently cited constraint on AI adoption, even as it raises legitimate questions about dependency, data governance and long-term technological sovereignty that African governments will need to weigh carefully.

A contested vision

It would be incomplete, and inconsistent with the standard of accuracy this analysis aims for, to present China's framework as universally embraced. Several independent analysts, including researchers writing for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and The Diplomat, have observed that WAICO's membership excludes Western democracies almost entirely and reflects, rather than transcends, existing geopolitical alignments. Critics have also drawn a line from WAICO's emphasis on state-centred digital cooperation to China's longstanding advocacy of cyber sovereignty, the principle that governments should retain primary authority over digital governance within their borders, and have questioned whether this framing adequately protects independent oversight and human rights accountability in AI deployment. These are legitimate concerns that deserve to sit alongside the genuine capacity-building value the initiative offers, and any government engaging with WAICO, South Africa included, will need to weigh both dimensions rather than treating the initiative as governance in the abstract.

At the same time, it is equally accurate to note that the existing alternative, a governance landscape shaped overwhelmingly by a small number of American and European technology firms and the regulatory preferences of Washington and Brussels, has itself drawn sustained criticism from Global South governments for offering limited input into rule-making that will nonetheless determine their access to frontier technology. Xi's framing of AI development as a symphony rather than a solo performance, and his explicit rejection of a governance order in which any single country's security interests override those of others, speaks directly to that frustration, even if the alternative China is proposing is itself led by a single, powerful state.

Why this matters for the Global South, and for South Africa

For countries like South Africa, positioned simultaneously within BRICS, the G20, the African Union and now WAICO, the choice is rarely a binary one between Western and Chinese-led frameworks. It is instead a question of how to extract the maximum developmental benefit, in training, infrastructure and market access, while retaining enough regulatory independence to set domestic standards on data protection, algorithmic accountability and digital rights that reflect South Africa's own constitutional and democratic commitments. WAICO's proposed cooperation centre with the African Union, alongside the training slots and applied tools such as MAZU, represent concrete near-term opportunities. Whether they translate into durable capability rather than continued dependency will depend substantially on how African governments, South Africa's included, negotiate the terms of engagement.

Conclusion

Xi Jinping's address in Shanghai, and the WAICO agreement it accompanied, together represent one of the more consequential moves in the still-unsettled contest over global AI governance. China has moved beyond issuing declarations and has now built an institution, backed by concrete financial and technical commitments, designed to appeal directly to the developing world's frustrations with a technology order it has had little hand in shaping. Whether WAICO becomes a genuinely consequential pillar of global AI governance, comparable in stature to institutions like the World Trade Organization as some commentators have speculated, or remains a more limited platform for South-South technical cooperation, will depend on how effectively it delivers on its training, infrastructure and standard-setting promises over the coming years. For South Africa and its Global South partners, the task now is less about choosing a side than about ensuring that participation in this new architecture strengthens, rather than substitutes for, their own capacity to govern AI on their own terms.