India’s proposal to link the payment systems of BRICS member countries, including possible interoperability between central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), did not find a place in the New Delhi Declaration adopted at the 18th BRICS Summit on September 12, 2026. The omission marks a setback for a policy priority New Delhi has pushed for nearly 16 years as part of its broader effort to expand trade settled in local currencies.
The New Delhi Declaration, adopted unanimously by all BRICS members at Bharat Mandapam, instead commits the bloc to a gradual approach: expanding cross-border trade and investment settled in members’ own national currencies and linking domestic payment and messaging systems so transactions can clear without routing through SWIFT. The declaration explicitly rejected the idea of a single common BRICS currency, noting there is “no one-size-fits-all approach” among member states with widely differing financial systems.
Why Did India’s Payment Interoperability Push Fall Short?
India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has been positioned by New Delhi as a template other BRICS economies could adopt or link with, and Indian officials had lobbied for explicit commitments on CBDC interoperability during the run-up to the summit. Diplomats familiar with the negotiations say some member states, wary of ceding control over payment infrastructure or exposing domestic financial systems to shared rails, preferred the vaguer language on “local currencies and cross-border payment links” that ultimately made it into the text.
What Does the Declaration Actually Commit Members To?
The adopted text commits BRICS members to expanding trade and investment settlement in national currencies and encourages, without mandating, closer coordination between domestic payment systems. It stops short of setting timelines, technical standards or a lead institution to coordinate interoperability, leaving implementation to bilateral or smaller-group arrangements rather than a bloc-wide architecture.
Market and Trade Reaction
The rupee and other BRICS currencies showed limited reaction to the declaration’s payment language, with analysts noting that without concrete interoperability commitments, near-term impact on cross-border trade settlement patterns is likely to be minimal. Indian payments industry bodies said UPI’s international linkages will now likely continue to expand through bilateral deals, as seen with Singapore, UAE and Sri Lanka, rather than a BRICS-wide framework.
What Happens Next?
Officials from India’s Ministry of Finance and the Reserve Bank of India are expected to continue pursuing bilateral payment-linkage agreements with individual BRICS partners over the coming months. The next formal opportunity to revisit bloc-wide payment interoperability will likely come at future BRICS finance and central bank deputies’ meetings, ahead of the next summit under a different member’s chairship.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was India’s main payment proposal at the BRICS Summit?
India pushed for interoperability among BRICS countries’ payment systems, including possible links between central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), building on the global reach of its own UPI platform.
Did the BRICS New Delhi Declaration create a common BRICS currency?
No. The declaration explicitly rejected a single common currency, instead backing a gradual shift toward trade and investment settlement in members’ own national currencies.
What was adopted instead of India’s interoperability plan?
Members agreed to broader, non-binding language on expanding local-currency trade settlement and linking domestic payment and messaging systems, without specific technical commitments.
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