Sept. 16—The 18th annual BRICS Summit in New Delhi, India, which convened Sept. 12-13, took to a higher level the existing process of collaboration among nations of the Global South toward a new world order for economic development and security. Running under the banner, “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability,” the summit can be seen as an international capstone to the earlier Eurasian-centered multi-nation conferences earlier this month, conducted with the same spirit of dialogue for mutual benefit: the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (Aug. 31-Sept. 1), and the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia (Sept. 1-4). There are grounds to expect expression of this new, positive leadership dynamic in certain speeches to the UN General Assembly in its upcoming, annual General Debate, Sept. 22-28, titled, “Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation: A United Nations that Delivers for All.”

As Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the host of this year’s summit, emphasized, the 21 BRICS member and partner countries represent more than 50% of the world’s population, 40% of global GDP, and more than 25% of global trade—truly a grouping that is already playing a major global role today. The New Delhi proceedings included the BRICS Business Forum on Sept. 11—reportedly the biggest gathering yet of business leaders from the BRICS nations—the 11-member summit on Sept. 12, and the full 21-member BRICS-Plus the next day. A joint “New Delhi Declaration” was released, 45 pages in length, with 140 points.