TIMES NOW at BRICS 2026 - Defining Moment in the Global Power Shift

Mumbai: With India set to host the 18th BRICS Summit, some of the biggest questions surrounding the emerging global order will take centre stage at ‘BRICS Dialogues’, in New Delhi on September 12-13, 2026. From the build-up to the Summit and key developments on the ground to the larger debates emerging from it, TIMES NOW is tracking how BRICS is reshaping the global order — and what India’s growing role means for the world.

In the lead-up to the Summit, TIMES NOW has aired interviews with diplomats, policymakers, economists, strategic affairs experts and global voices, including Lobsang Sangay, Former PM-in-Exile of Tibet; Amitabh Kant, Former G20 Sherpa; Martin Wolf, Financial Times Columnist; Jawed Ashraf, Chairman, Indian Trade Promotion Organisation and Former Diplomat; Dr Jeffrey D. Sachs, Economist and Author; Parag Khanna, Founder and CEO, AlphaGeo; T.S. Tirumurti, Chair, Steering Committee, Deccan Centre for International Relations and Former Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations and Former BRICS Sherpa amongst others. Exclusive Interviews with Manish Tewari, Lok Sabha MP, Congress; and Gautam Bambawale, Former Indian Ambassador to China will go on air tomorrow. Through these conversations, the channel has decoded the evolution of BRICS, its expanding membership, the growing influence of the Global South, and the opportunities and challenges before India.

Speaking to Zakka Jacob, Martin Wolf, Global Political Commentator, discussed the relevance of BRICS in today’s world, the relationship between China and the US, and the ongoing conflicts shaping global geopolitics. He added, “It’s a forum in which India and China — the two most important players — can talk to each other. China is already a superpower. India is potentially a superpower and is the fastest-growing substantial economy in the world. For them to talk to each other within the context of other countries, which defuses some of the bilateral tensions — I think this is very valuable.”

Addressing the current U.S.- Iran conflict, he added, " The Iran war was an incredibly stupid idea. And now America is losing that war, if not already lost. Iran is victorious. If this continues for the rest of the year, global inventories—which were initially large, especially in China—are now being drawn down rapidly. By the end of the year, they could be significantly depleted. In that situation, supply would fall below normal levels... Under those conditions, oil prices could return to historical peaks."

Highlighting the strategic partnership between India and the US, Dr Jeffrey Sachs, Economist and Author, mentioned, “I think the idea that India has a strategic partnership with the United States is the wrong idea. The US is the declining power. The real booming part of the world is Asia. India is the fastest-growing large economy in the whole world, and it will continue to be so. And closer relations with China are going to help that tremendously. We just want a non-hegemonic world where the United States, or anyone else, stops bossing everyone else around.” I think BRICS stands for the new multipolar world. It stands for an anti-hegemonic world, and it stands, I hope and believe, for a multilateral world that operates under the UN Charter. I would say all the wars we have — the wars in the Middle East and the wars in Ukraine — are wars of US hegemony. What I mean by that is that even the war in Ukraine absolutely clearly is a war of US expansion. And it sounds strange, but the idea was that the US would take Ukraine into its orbit.”

Parag Khanna, Founder and CEO, AlphaGeo, spoke about BRICS’ role amid rising geopolitical tensions and argued that the grouping should focus on deepening economic cooperation. He said, “BRICS was created not to solve every problem, not to replace the UN Security Council, not to replace the G20, but to actually be an economic organisation. BRICS members, primarily those east of the Strait of Hormuz, should be doubling down on their internal BRICS cooperation, particularly in areas of energy, to streamline and facilitate greater infrastructure investment, upstream, midstream, and downstream energy trade, to insulate themselves against shocks that emanate from west of most of the BRICS membership. Consensus should not be the objective for BRICS. Instead, the grouping should focus on identifying mutual interests and strengthening economic cooperation through areas such as the New Development Bank, critical minerals. Rather than trying to mediate every conflict, BRICS should strengthen initiatives like the New Development Bank and explore ways to facilitate trade and reduce dependence on the dollar.”

Under the theme ‘Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability.’, the event will bring together Union Ministers, policymakers, diplomats, economists, business leaders and global thought leaders to examine India’s evolving role in BRICS and the Global Power Shift. As traditional alliances are tested and new centres of economic and geopolitical influence emerge, TIMES NOW will examine the choices before India, the partnerships it can build, and the role it can play in shaping the next global order.

What sets TIMES NOW’s BRICS coverage apart is the strength of its newsroom, with seasoned journalists, bringing sharp questioning and deep knowledge of politics, diplomacy, international affairs and economics. From gaining access to key policymakers and global voices to putting breaking developments into context, the channel’s anchors and reporters are bringing the questions viewers are asking directly to the people best placed to answer them.

Through sustained coverage in the run-up to the Summit, on-ground reporting during the event and deeper analysis of what comes next, TIMES NOW is putting India’s BRICS moment at the heart of the national conversation.

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