Worldview with Suhasini Haidar | BRICS Summit: How India forged consensus on the New Delhi declaration

Now, leaders of more than 20 countries were in Delhi for the 18th BRICS Summit of Emerging Economies.

The grouping issued the New Delhi Declaration 2026 after some last-minute negotiations produced what was necessary for a breakthrough, particularly there on the wording of the West Asia war.

We'll tell you more about that, but first, who was there? Really the entire who's who of the non-G7, non-NATO, non-Western world representing the global south continents of Asia, South America and Africa.

So there was Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, South African President Ramaphosa, Egyptian President El-Sisi, Iranian President Buzeshkian, UAE Crown Prince Khalid bin Zayed representing his father, the President, Ethiopian President Abiy Ahmed Ali and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto.

Brazil sent its foreign minister due to elections in the country.

Saudi Arabia, whose membership is still ambiguous as it hasn't joined yet, sent its foreign minister, Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.

But he also arrived only after the main summit.

So it's still unclear whether Saudi Arabia is in BRICS or not, whether it's a 10-member grouping or 11.

There were also special guests, regional leaders, including Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, leaders of Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Belarus, Uganda, Nigeria, Burundi, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Cuba, as well as the UN Secretary General, the head of the World Health Organization, the New Development Bank as well.

So you get the picture.

The glaring absence, if any, was of regional leaders of South Asia.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Tariq Rehman declined the invitation, according to officials there, because the invitation to him was only addressed to the BIMSTEC chair, not to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh.

Clearly, there are many tensions there.

And although this is seen as a self-goal by Dhaka, It was also the fact that no other neighboring country leader was there, as had been the case in previous BRICS summits in India, as well as the G20 summit, the Artificial Intelligence summit and others.