OddsFrontXi launches a ‘Greater BRICS’ economic-cooperation drive at the New Delhi summit
China’s new trade, artificial-intelligence and supply-chain proposals seek to give the enlarged bloc a more practical role, even as wars expose its political divisions.
A broader economic agenda
Chinese President Xi Jinping used the closing session of the BRICS summit in New Delhi on September 13 to propose deeper cooperation among the grouping’s members and partners. The initiatives covered artificial intelligence, trade, industrial and supply-chain stability and the development of a more integrated market. The move gives specific economic content to Beijing’s “Greater BRICS” concept, which seeks to connect the bloc’s eleven full members with a wider circle of partner states.
Xi’s intervention went beyond the joint declaration adopted a day earlier. That document concentrated on broad principles, including opposition to unilateral tariffs and sanctions, support for multilateral institutions and calls for restraint in the Middle East. China’s proposals instead focused on mechanisms through which members could coordinate economic policy and technology development. Details about funding, governance and participation remain limited, making implementation the next test.
Ambition meets political division
BRICS now includes major economies and energy producers with sharply different security alignments. Iran is fighting the United States and Israel, while Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have faced Iranian or Iran-aligned attacks. Russia remains at war with Ukraine, whereas India and several other members maintain working relationships with both Moscow and Western governments. Those tensions forced the New Delhi declaration to use general language rather than assign responsibility for either conflict.
The United Nations’ engagement with the summit underlined why the grouping matters beyond its internal politics. Secretary-General António Guterres met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi before the leaders’ sessions and discussed reform of multilateral institutions, the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, food and fertiliser access, freedom of navigation and autonomous weapons. Those subjects overlap directly with the economic and technological areas Xi wants BRICS to address.
The practical question is whether members can convert their combined scale into coordinated programmes without building a treaty-based organisation. BRICS has no common market, defence obligation or supranational regulator. China’s proposals could therefore advance through voluntary projects, financing institutions and standards cooperation rather than binding rules. Officials will now need to identify participating countries, timetables and resources. That process will show whether “Greater BRICS” becomes an operating framework or remains primarily a diplomatic slogan.