For one week in September, New Delhi will belong to its visitors. The 18th BRICS Summit is set to begin in the capital on September 12, and the city is already being told to prepare for the kind of disruption that only a gathering of world leaders can produce.
The Associated Press reported that residents face traffic chaos as India readies itself to host the summit. Delhi is not new to VIP lockdowns, but a BRICS summit stacks several of them into a single stretch of days — convoys, cordons, protocol routes and rolling closures that rarely announce themselves in advance.
BRICS Comes to Delhi: What Happens From September 12
News On AIR reported that the 18th edition of the BRICS summit will begin in New Delhi on September 12. The event is the bloc's annual leaders' meeting, where Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — along with the newer members added in recent rounds of expansion — gather for plenary sessions, bilateral talks and the joint statements that follow.
India is a founding member of the grouping, and hosting the summit places it at the centre of a club that now spans four continents. The agenda documents were not available in the reporting reviewed for this article, so the specifics of what will be discussed — and what will be signed — remain open.
Why Hosting the 18th Edition Matters More Than the Photo-Ops
Summits are theatre, but the casting matters. For India, hosting is a chance to present itself as the natural voice of the Global South — a country that can sit at the same table as both Washington's rivals and its partners without choosing a side.
That positioning has a domestic dividend too. A successful summit reinforces the government's claim to diplomatic weight at a time when global trade and security alignments are shifting quickly. The risk is equally real: if the summit produces a weak or heavily hedged declaration, the symbolism cuts the other way.
Gridlock City: What Delhi Residents Should Brace For
AP's reporting focused on the practical cost to the people who live and work in the capital. Summit logistics typically mean sealed corridors around the venue and the hotel district, temporary no-parking zones, and route diversions that shift congestion onto neighbourhood roads.
What that looks like in this specific case has not been spelled out in the reporting reviewed. Delhi Traffic Police advisories, issued closer to the event, are usually the most reliable source of road-level detail — and they tend to change daily as the schedule firms up.
For anyone commuting through central Delhi in mid-September, the practical answer is unglamorous: build in buffer time, expect the unexpected, and treat the metro as the default option on heavy days.
The Guest List — and the Signal It Sends
NDTV reported on which Delhi hotels are hosting Putin, Xi Jinping and other BRICS delegates. The very framing of that coverage says something about how this summit is being read: as much a story about who shows up as about what gets discussed.
The presence of the Russian and Chinese presidents would give the Delhi edition unusual geopolitical weight. It would also add layers of security, protocol and diplomatic choreography that a lower-key summit would not require. The full list of leaders who will attend has not been independently confirmed in the reporting reviewed for this article, and confirmations at this level often arrive late.
From Kazan to Rio to Delhi: How the Bloc Grew Up
BRICS began in 2009 as a four-country conversation between Brazil, Russia, India and China. South Africa joined a year later, giving the grouping its recognisable acronym.
For most of its first decade, BRICS was long on communiqués and short on institutions. That changed with the New Development Bank and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement, and more recently with an expansion round that brought in members from the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia.
The Delhi summit is therefore the latest stop on a journey from talking shop to something closer to a bloc — though how close remains genuinely contested.
An Expanded Bloc, an Unresolved Identity
Bigger has not meant simpler. The original five already disagreed on trade, currency and security. Adding more members widened the tent and, by most accounts, widened the gaps on the harder questions.
Chief among those is money. Russia has pushed hard for alternatives to dollar-denominated trade and has floated the idea of a shared BRICS currency. India has historically been far more cautious, wary of anything that could unsettle its own currency or invite external retaliation.
The result is a group that can agree on principles and struggle on mechanics — a dynamic worth keeping in mind when reading any post-summit headlines.
What's Confirmed and What Remains Unclear
Confirmed: the 18th BRICS Summit is scheduled to begin in New Delhi on September 12, per News On AIR. Delhi is preparing for major traffic disruption, as reported by AP. Media coverage is focused on the presence of Putin, Xi and other delegates, per NDTV.
Unclear: the complete list of attending heads of state, the summit agenda, the specific road closure plan, the venue and hotel arrangements in full detail, and whether any bilateral meetings between India and China or India and Russia will take place on the margins. Anything beyond the confirmed items above is, for now, expectation rather than fact.
Risks and Pushback: The Case Against Overreading BRICS
It is worth saying plainly: BRICS is not a treaty alliance. Its declarations are not binding, its members often vote differently at the United Nations, and several of them are in open disagreement with each other.
India and China share a contested border and a long history of friction. Iran's inclusion has drawn criticism from Western capitals. And for all the talk of a new financial architecture, the bloc's trade still runs overwhelmingly through the dollar system.
Critics also point to the cost side of hosting: security expenditure, disruption to businesses and daily wages lost to gridlock. Supporters counter that the diplomatic returns — investment signalling, bilateral access and prestige — justify a few days of inconvenience. Both arguments have merit, and neither is settled.
Planning Your Week in Delhi: A Practical Guide
If you live or work in the capital, plan around the summit rather than through it. Check Delhi Traffic Police advisories each morning, because routes can change with the day's schedule.
Prefer the metro for cross-city travel during the summit window, keep extra time for airport and railway station runs, and try to shift non-urgent meetings outside the core summit days. Businesses near the venue and the main hotel corridors should expect staff and delivery delays.
Students with exams, patients with hospital appointments and travellers with tight connections should confirm their routes a day in advance rather than assuming last week's plan still works.
What Could Happen Next
Expect a steady drip of confirmations over the coming days: attendance announcements, traffic advisories, and eventually a list of the bilateral meetings that will run alongside the main sessions.
The summit itself is likely to close with a joint declaration covering trade, multilateral reform and development finance. How specific that document turns out to be will tell you more about the bloc's direction than any of the photographs.
Our Take
The Delhi edition of the BRICS summit is two stories running at once. There is the diplomatic story — a bloc that wants to be taken seriously as a counterweight, meeting in a country that prefers to be seen as a bridge rather than a battering ram.
And there is the city story — a capital of tens of millions absorbing the logistics of a global event with the pragmatism it has built up over decades of them. The first will be judged by analysts for years. The second will be judged by commuters on the day, and they tend to be harder to impress.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is the 18th BRICS Summit?
It is scheduled to begin in New Delhi on September 12, according to News On AIR.
Which leaders will attend the BRICS Summit in Delhi?
Media reports have focused on Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and other BRICS delegates, with attention on which Delhi hotels are hosting them. A complete and officially confirmed list of attending leaders was not available in the reporting reviewed at the time of writing.
Will the BRICS Summit affect Delhi traffic?
Yes. The Associated Press reported that Delhi residents face traffic chaos as India prepares to host the event. Commuters should check Delhi Traffic Police advisories daily and use the metro where possible.
What is BRICS, and which countries are members?
BRICS stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — the five founding members. The grouping has since expanded to include additional countries from the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia, making this summit one of the larger gatherings in its history.