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Ahead of the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi, China's Ambassador to India Xu Feihong proposed a five-pillar 'POWER' framework for a Greater BRICS.
The five pillars are Principle (sovereign equality and international law), Openness (defending WTO-centred multilateral trade), Win-Win (a development-centred agenda with local-currency settlement), Engine (AI, digital public infrastructure and green technology) and Responsibility (using India's 2026 and China's 2027 presidencies for continuity).
The pitch rests on scale: the expanded grouping holds close to half the world's population, about 30% of global GDP and roughly a fifth of global trade turnover, and the IMF projects it growing nearly three times faster than the G-7 through 2028.
It arrives alongside a thaw in India-China ties, with five direct commercial flight routes resumed and border trade reopened after a six-year gap.
Plurilateral grouping of major emerging economies, expanded through BRICS+ into a 10-member platform positioned as an alternative voice to the G-7
The rules-based multilateral trading system the 'Openness' pillar seeks to defend, including Most-Favoured-Nation treatment
Chinese-hosted platform named in the 'Engine' pillar for cross-BRICS artificial intelligence cooperation, alongside the China-BRICS New Quality Productive Forces Research Center
The POWER pitch is a curtain-raiser to the leaders' summit at Bharat Mandapam on 12-13 September 2026, held during India's chairship.
The 'Win-Win' pillar's push for local-currency trade and payment interoperability is the concrete face of the de-dollarisation debate, and connects to the New Development Bank's local-currency lending target.
'Responsibility' commits BRICS to Bretton Woods and UN Security Council reform - India's long-standing demand, on which China's position has historically been the obstacle.
GS Paper 2 > Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India's interests; Effect of policies of developed and developing countries on India
General Awareness > International Organisations and Current Affairs
The WTO principle that a member must extend to all members any trade advantage it grants to one, barring recognised exceptions.
Settling cross-border trade in the partners' own currencies rather than a third currency such as the US dollar.
A Chinese foreign-policy framework on security cooperation, which the 'Principle' pillar seeks to advance through BRICS.
The grouping after its expansions beyond the original five members, now numbering ten.