Is Trump feeling left out as the new power axis takes shape in Delhi?
September 12, 2026 The 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi is revealing a geopolitical reality that Washington can no longer comfortably ignore: India, Russia, China and Iran are sitting at the same strategic table, even though their interests are far from identical.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for BRICS to develop a practical economic platform capable of reducing dependence on Western-dominated systems, including through cooperation on payments, investment, technology and infrastructure.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, meanwhile, has argued that economic security can no longer be separated from national and regional security, particularly after the conflict involving Iran and the United States and Israel.
And then there is India, deliberately occupying the complicated middle ground. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has held separate talks with Putin and Pezeshkian, while New Delhi continues to maintain important relations with Washington, the Gulf states and Israel.
China’s Xi Jinping is also arriving in India, making the summit particularly significant. The four powers therefore find themselves within the same BRICS framework at a moment when global politics is becoming increasingly multipolar.
Is Trump being left out?
Not literally. The United States is not a BRICS member, and BRICS was never designed as a club requiring Washington’s approval. But politically, the optics are striking.
Trump has repeatedly attacked BRICS and threatened countries associated with the bloc with economic consequences, particularly over efforts that could reduce dependence on the US dollar. Yet BRICS has expanded and now represents roughly half the world’s population, giving the grouping considerably greater geopolitical weight.
The bigger question is therefore not whether Trump is “left out” of BRICS, but whether Washington is watching a group of emerging powers gradually build alternative economic and diplomatic channels that make American dominance less indispensable.
And that is precisely why Delhi matters. BRICS may not be a unified anti-American alliance, but the conversation taking place around its table is increasingly about what the world looks like when there is more than one centre of power.
BRICS is not yet a rival to the US-led order. But it is becoming much harder to dismiss as merely a talking shop.
JANPATH NEWS NETWORK (JNN)
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