Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has issued a forceful call for the reform of the United Nations Security Council, arguing that the world can no longer afford to postpone giving rising powers like India a permanent seat at the table.
Addressing the opening of the BRICS Summit in New Delhi on Saturday, Modi drew a sharp contrast between the burdens carried by developing nations and the influence they are granted in return. Countries of the Global South, he said, are placed in the front row whenever the world faces a crisis, yet are relegated to the back row when key decisions are made.
“We have to transform this pyramid of privilege into a platform of partnership — where every country has a voice and every member has a stake,” Modi told the gathering.
Framing the summit as a moment of reckoning for the international system, the Prime Minister added: “The message of this BRICS Summit should be clear: If our future is shared, then the right to shape that future must also be shared.”
His comments reiterated India’s long-running push for permanent membership on the Security Council — a demand New Delhi has anchored in a wider argument that the global governance architecture built after the Second World War no longer reflects today’s political and economic realities.
Modi also urged the bloc to move beyond rhetoric, saying it was time to convert BRICS solidarity into tangible outcomes and for its members to help steer the direction of global reform. The summit concluded with member states endorsing a joint declaration.
The leaders in attendance included Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Now expanded to include Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates, BRICS accounts for more than 40 percent of the world’s population and close to a quarter of global GDP — a scale that lends significant weight to Modi’s appeal for a rebalanced international order.
