BRICS leaders met in New Delhi on September 12 and 13 for the bloc's 18th summit, hosted by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with 
Xi Jinping making his first visit to India since 2019. Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had arrived a day earlier, and Modi embraced Putin before their talks, Channel News Asia reported.
What did China announce? At the opening session, Xi said China would take over the BRICS chair in 2027 and host the 19th summit. He urged members to oppose interference in other countries' internal affairs and to resist all forms of protectionism, Taiwan's Central News Agency reported, and said China was willing to help bring peace to the Gulf region. The next day he announced that China would build a BRICS open-source artificial intelligence zone to support large language model development, the first of five technology and trade initiatives.
What does the declaration say? BRICS foreign ministers had failed to agree a joint statement in May over differences on the Iran war, the BBC reported. The New Delhi Declaration expresses "deep concern" over escalating tensions in the Middle East and calls for "maximum restraint". It named no party to the conflict, mentioning neither US and Israeli strikes on Iran nor Iranian attacks on the UAE, but asked that civilians and nuclear facilities not be targeted, Taiwan's Public Television Service reported. Sandra Petersmann, DW's head of geopolitics, wrote that Ukraine is not mentioned once and that neither 
Donald Trump nor the United States is named, although leaders condemned unilateral sanctions and voiced concern over unilateral tariffs. Modi said BRICS was no longer merely a grouping of countries but an ecosystem for solving global problems.
What happened between the Indian and Chinese leaders? Xi met Modi during the summit, in what Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning had said would be the leaders' third straight annual meeting, after Kazan and Tianjin. Relations froze after a deadly 2020 clash on their disputed Himalayan border, and the talks mark another step in a cautious thaw between the nuclear-armed neighbours. Modi twice paused his opening address to ask Xi "Is it okay?", Taiwan's Central News Agency reported, citing the Hindustan Times; Xi later skipped Modi's banquet, and neither government has given an official reason for either episode. CCTV footage of the talks also showed Zhou Hongxu, chief of the Central Guard Bureau that protects China's top leaders, in a rare appearance at such a meeting.
Figures referenced: Xi Jinping, Donald Trump. — JudgeMarket.
