UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to participate in BRICS Summit in India

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will participate in the 18th BRICS Summit later this month in New Delhi.

As the chair this year, India will be hosting the 18th BRICS Summit on September 12-13 at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi. The summit will bring together leaders of BRICS member and partner countries as well as outreach invitees, according to the Ministry of External Affairs.

Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for Mr. Guterres, said at the press briefing at the UN on Tuesday (September 1), "… 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 on possible meetings between Guterres and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit hosted in Kyrgyzstan on August 31-September 1.

The theme for India’s BRICS chairship is ‘Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability’.

Over 350 meetings and high-level engagements have been held in over 25 cities across India to further strengthen the BRICS strategic partnership across three fundamental pillars: political and security, economic and financial, and cultural and people-to-people exchanges.

Through these engagements, and business-to-business and people-to-people initiatives, India's BRICS chairship has contributed to advancing BRICS cooperation through practical and development-oriented outcomes, the MEA has said.

India, a founding member of BRICS, has previously held its chairship in 2012, 2016. and 2021. India assumed its fourth BRICS chairship on January 1, 2026. BRICS is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

Mr. Guterres, whose second five-year tenure as head of the United Nations ends in December 2026, had travelled to India in February this year to attend the India-AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi.

The summit was the first-ever global AI summit hosted in the Global South.

In Bishkek, Mr. Guterres met with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on the margins of the SCO Summit.

The Secretary-General expressed his concern regarding the devastating humanitarian and economic consequences of the conflict in Iran, in the region and beyond. He stressed the urgent need to resolve the conflict through dialogue and negotiations, with full respect for international law, including international navigational rights and freedoms in and around the Strait of Hormuz.

Mr. Guterres also reaffirmed the commitment of the UN to support all diplomatic efforts aimed at a comprehensive and durable solution, his spokesperson said.

Mr. Putin and Mr. Pezeshkian are among the world leaders who will arrive in New Delhi for the BRICS summit. Mr. Xi is also widely expected to attend the BRICS summit before visiting the U.S. for a summit meeting with President Donald Trump later this month.