BRICS leaders are gathering in New Delhi with less talk of replacing the US dollar and more attention on something potentially more consequential: building the infrastructure that could allow member economies to trade, settle payments and finance investment through alternative channels. BRICS Pay, digital-currency interoperability, expanding intra-BRICS trade and deepening energy relationships suggest the bloc's evolution is increasingly about practical financial architecture rather than political slogans.
INR Report: Based on reporting by RT newsroom HERE.
BRICS leaders are meeting in New Delhi for the group's 18th annual summit, with India using its 2026 chairmanship to emphasise economic connectivity rather than the more provocative rhetoric about de-dollarisation that has surrounded the bloc in recent years. Chinese President Xi Jinping is attending in what RT reports is his first visit to India in seven years, while Russian President Vladimir Putin is also travelling to Delhi.
The summit nevertheless takes place against significant internal differences. Iran and the UAE, both relatively recent BRICS members, have found themselves on opposing sides of tensions in the Middle East. A meeting of BRICS foreign ministers in May failed to produce a joint statement, according to RT, demonstrating that expansion has increased the group's economic weight while also making political consensus more difficult.
That may explain why some of the most important developments within BRICS are occurring away from headline diplomacy. Rather than attempting to create a unified political bloc, member states are progressively developing the financial, trade and energy infrastructure that could allow them to conduct more business without depending exclusively on Western-centred systems.
BRICS Pay Moves Closer
Among the most consequential projects is BRICS Pay, an attempt to make national and commercial payment systems interoperable across participating countries.
The objective is relatively straightforward. A company in India buying goods from Brazil, for example, can currently encounter correspondent banks, multiple currency conversions, additional fees and settlement delays. An interoperable BRICS payment network could potentially allow national currencies to move between participating financial systems more directly.
BRICS Pay remains at pilot level and has not been commercially deployed across the bloc. RT reports, however, that Kremlin aide Kirill Dmitriev expects an agreement concerning the project at the New Delhi summit.
Dmitriev said, “We are focusing specifically on the financial track. We lead the group responsible for cooperation on financial issues, and payments are a very important part of this.”
An agreement should not be confused with the system becoming immediately operational. Connecting banking and payment infrastructure across countries with different regulatory regimes, currencies and technology standards is a substantial undertaking. But political endorsement could move the project another step towards implementation.
BRICS 2026: Who’s coming and what’s on the agenda?
A Second Route Through Digital Currencies
A potentially deeper proposal involves connecting BRICS members' central bank digital currencies for cross-border settlement.
India has reportedly placed CBDC interoperability on the summit agenda. Rather than creating a new common currency, the concept would allow participating central-bank-issued digital currencies to communicate and settle across national systems.
That distinction matters. Despite years of speculation about a so-called BRICS currency, the current proposals described by RT do not amount to replacing national currencies with a shared unit comparable to the euro.
Instead, the objective appears to be additional financial plumbing. If successfully implemented, CBDC interoperability could provide another route for cross-border transactions with fewer intermediaries while reducing reliance on financial architecture centred on Western institutions.
The proposal remains at the discussion stage.
Trade Is Providing the Economic Foundation
Alternative payment infrastructure becomes more significant if there is sufficient commerce flowing through it. According to figures cited by RT, intra-BRICS exports reached approximately $1.2 trillion in 2025.
India's trade with other BRICS members reportedly reached about $416 billion in 2025, having grown at close to 10 percent annually between 2021 and 2025.
Leaders are also expected to consider the BRICS Economic Partnership Strategy 2030, extending an existing programme covering trade and investment, financial cooperation and the digital economy. The less dramatic elements include reducing institutional friction, strengthening supply chains and making it easier for smaller businesses to operate across BRICS economies.
These initiatives may ultimately prove more important than declarations about a new global financial order. International financial systems are difficult to replace precisely because their usefulness comes from networks, standards, institutions and infrastructure accumulated over decades. BRICS appears increasingly focused on constructing those foundations.
The bloc already has one operational example. The New Development Bank, established in 2015, has approved approximately $43 billion in lending, according to the RT report. It remains relatively small compared with the world's major multilateral financial institutions, but demonstrates that BRICS can move from political proposal to functioning institution.
BRICS 2026: India charts its own course between Russia and the West
Energy Trade Is Accelerating
Energy is another area where changing trade patterns are already measurable.
RT reports that India's imports of Russian crude reached 2.47 million barrels per day in July 2026, representing a reported 50.8 percent of India's total crude imports. Across April to July, Russia reportedly supplied 43.25 percent of Indian crude imports, compared with 37 percent a year earlier.
Russia also remains a major supplier of crude oil to China, while Moscow is developing the Vostok Oil project and Northern Sea Route as another long-term pathway for supplying Asian markets. Nuclear energy provides another area of potential cooperation, with Russia, China and India all possessing substantial civilian nuclear programmes.
The significance extends beyond energy itself. Large commodity flows create demand for payment, insurance, financing, shipping and settlement mechanisms. As trade expands, BRICS countries have a stronger commercial incentive to develop financial infrastructure capable of supporting those transactions.
This Is Not Yet the End of the Dollar
It would be premature to describe these developments as evidence that BRICS has replaced, or is about to replace, the dollar-based international financial system.
BRICS Pay is not yet commercially operating across the bloc. CBDC interoperability remains under discussion. The member states have substantial geopolitical differences, and their economic interests do not always align.
The dollar also benefits from deeply established financial markets, global liquidity, institutional confidence and decades of accumulated infrastructure. Those advantages cannot simply be recreated by political declaration.
But that may also be why the quieter BRICS developments deserve attention. The bloc does not necessarily need to overthrow the existing system to alter it. Building credible alternative payment and settlement routes could gradually give governments and businesses more choices about how international commerce is conducted.
Does This Affect New Zealand?
For New Zealand, the significance lies less in whether BRICS succeeds politically and more in where global trade infrastructure is heading.
China and India are major economies in the Indo-Pacific and important present or potential markets for New Zealand exporters. If an increasing share of trade between large emerging economies begins moving through national currencies, alternative payment networks or eventually interoperable CBDCs, New Zealand businesses and financial institutions will need to understand those systems regardless of Wellington's geopolitical preferences.
There is also a broader strategic question. New Zealand's financial and trading architecture remains closely connected to Western institutions and the Australian banking system. That has provided stability and access to mature financial markets, but a more multipolar settlement environment could increasingly require the country to interact with parallel financial networks.
The important question therefore may not be whether New Zealand chooses between BRICS and the West. It may be whether New Zealand retains sufficient financial and diplomatic flexibility to trade effectively with both.
The Infrastructure Matters More Than the Rhetoric
BRICS has frequently attracted attention because of declarations about changing the international order. The more consequential development may be far less dramatic.
Payment networks, development banks, trade agreements, energy routes and digital settlement systems are not inherently headline-grabbing. Yet these are precisely the mechanisms through which economic systems become durable.
Internal political divisions remain substantial. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov acknowledged that disagreements between Iran and the UAE had a “negative impact” on efforts to prepare a joint summit declaration.
At the same time, the institutional work continues.
If BRICS Pay, cross-border digital settlement and deeper trade integration eventually operate at scale, the global economy would not suddenly cease using Western financial infrastructure. Instead, countries would have more alternatives to it.
That distinction is important. The real challenge to an established financial system may not come from announcing its replacement, but from quietly building another system alongside it.
Sources
RT newsroom, BRICS: The gears of change keep grinding, 11 September 2026:
https://www.rt.com/news/645504-brics-payments-trade-energy/
RT, Putin and fellow BRICS leaders set stage for New Delhi summit:
https://www.rt.com/india/645432-putin-vists-new-delhi-modi/
RT, BRICS 2026: Who’s coming and what’s on the agenda?:
https://www.rt.com/india/645386-brics-summit-new-delhi/
RT, BRICS 2026: India charts its own course between Russia and the West:
https://www.rt.com/news/645477-brics-2026-india-russia-west/
RT, Russia ‘open to working with the whole world’ – Putin:
https://www.rt.com/russia/645485-putin-brics-forum-russia/
Independent reporting. Original context. Credited sources.