Brics leaders seek deeper financial integration amid global uncertainty

On the eve of the two-day Brics Summit, the speeches of some of its leaders at a Business Forum on Friday revealed the internal churn taking place within the 11-member platform. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated the role of Brics, and within it that of India, as that of a bridge builder, the top leaders of Russia, South Africa and Iran spoke of the need for the grouping to be more financially integrated to meet the challenges of an uncertain global environment, with one of them stating that Brics was at an inflection point and had to decide whether it remains merely a platform for consultations. Suggestions from these leaders included setting up a new investment platform to mobilise private capital for intra-Brics infrastructure projects. The 2025 Brics Summit joint statement noted the discussions on setting up a New Investment Platform.

The Brics leaders started arriving in New Delhi for the two-day Brics Summit on September 12-13, with Russian President Vladimir Putin landing in the early hours of Friday and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in the afternoon, while Chinese President Xi Jinping will arrive on Saturday afternoon. Modi, Putin, Pezeshkian and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the Brics Business Forum on Friday evening. Modi also held bilateral meetings with Putin, Pezeshkian and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. He will hold bilateral meetings with other visiting leaders as well over the weekend, including with Xi on Saturday evening.

In his address at the Brics Business Forum, Modi said that at a juncture when trade barriers are increasing in the world, India is building “economic bridges”, and has signed free trade agreements with nearly 40 countries since 2014. He said India’s Brics chairship has reflected its approach of reducing barriers and increasing opportunities for businesses in agriculture, health, start-ups, MSMEs and technology.

The PM urged the Brics Business Council, which comprises captains of industry from the grouping's member countries, to recommend removing the “top ten trade barriers” between Brics members, support at least a hundred Brics start-ups every year to scale their businesses to other Brics markets and explore opportunities to forge partnerships between a thousand businesses of the 11-member grouping. He stressed that freedom of navigation, security of sea lanes and safety of seafarers are prerequisites for healthy global trade.

Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke of the declining economic and industrial might of the Group of Seven, or G7, with Brics countries replacing it. He said the Western countries claimed that “competition is sacrosanct”, but it has taken an “ugly turn” as Iran is witnessing and “more than 30,000 sanctions” have been imposed on Russia, despite which the country has shown resilience.

Putin said 40 of Russia’s top companies are part of its national committee for business cooperation, which seeks to build a substantive programme for cooperation with foreign partners, including in the development of reliable logistics routes, such as the Arctic corridor and the North-South Transport Corridor.

Putin spoke of the NDB’s role in funding projects and a new platform for private sector funding of projects, and hoped other Brics members would support it. “We are not against anyone,” Putin said. "We are in favour of our respective national interests," he said. Brics members have been exploring ways to increase development financing, infrastructure investment and the use of local financial resources while reducing dependence on traditional Western-led financial institutions.

The Russian President cited Indian company Mahindra as one of several Brics corporate success stories, highlighting its work in IT and artificial intelligence alongside China's Huawei, Brazil's Embraer, UAE-based TPO and Russia's Rosatom. He spoke of pipeline disruptions, attempts to block international transport corridors, seizures of maritime vessels and the use of secondary sanctions.

South Africa’s Ramaphosa spoke of how Brics member countries turned the adversity of sanctions and unilateralism into opportunities by developing new capacities. The question is no longer whether there is potential within Brics, but whether it has the ambition and instruments to convert this potential into economic value for its people. He said Brics should not merely serve as a forum for consultation but as a mechanism for developing commercial relationships and productive partnerships. At Brics, we find ourselves at an inflection point.

Iran’s Pezeshkian spoke about the US and Israeli attacks on his country, and called for greater intra-Brics trade, integration of Brics cross-border markets, energy, food and transport supply chains, expanding the use of national currencies in trade, and establishing necessary instruments for managing currency risks and for reciprocal settlements. He said the NDB must become the principal engine for infrastructure development in member countries through dedicated credit lines. He said Iran supports a Brics joint reinsurance company with an initial capital of $10 billion to cover the risks of major infrastructure and energy projects to increase private sector confidence in putting its money into them.