UN Secretary-General Guterres expected at BRICS Summit in New Delhi

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is expected to participate in the 18th BRICS Summit scheduled to be held in New Delhi later this month. The summit, which India is hosting as the current chair of the grouping, will take place on September 12 and 13 at Bharat Mandapam.

According to the Ministry of External Affairs, the summit will bring together leaders of BRICS member and partner countries as well as outreach invitees. The theme for India's chairship is 'Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability'.

While Guterres's participation has been widely reported, the UN has not yet made a formal announcement. Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the Secretary-General, told a press briefing on Tuesday, "We have yet to officially announce that the secretary-general will participate in the BRICS meeting in New Delhi in about 10 days' time." He was responding to a question about possible meetings between Guterres and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

India has held over 350 meetings and high-level engagements in more than 25 cities across the country to further strengthen the BRICS strategic partnership. These engagements, which include business-to-business and people-to-people initiatives, have focused on three fundamental pillars: political and security, economic and financial, and cultural and people-to-people exchanges.

India, a founding member of BRICS, has previously held the chairship in 2012, 2016 and 2021. It assumed its fourth chairship on January 1, 2026. This year also marks the 20th anniversary of the BRICS grouping.

Guterres, whose second five-year term as UN Secretary-General ends in December 2026, visited India in February this year to attend the India-AI Impact Summit 2026, the first-ever global AI summit hosted in the Global South.

During the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, held from August 31 to September 1, Guterres met with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. The Secretary-General expressed concern over the devastating humanitarian and economic consequences of the conflict in Iran and the wider region. He stressed the urgent need to resolve the conflict through dialogue and negotiations, with full respect for international law, including navigational rights and freedoms in and around the Strait of Hormuz.

World leaders expected to attend the BRICS Summit in New Delhi include Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. Chinese President Xi Jinping is also widely expected to attend before visiting the United States for a meeting with President Donald Trump later this month.