BRICS Delhi Declaration 2026: I Read All 120 Paragraphs So You Don’t Have To

Key Takeaways

• Leaders signed the New Delhi Declaration on 12 September 2026, with India in the chair.
• India spent months selling a CBDC link. The word “CBDC” isn’t in the final text.
• Paragraph 42 goes after illegal virtual asset flows and scam compounds.
• Paragraph 95 flags quantum computing for the financial sector, which nobody is talking about yet.

Everyone is asking me what the Delhi Declaration is, so here it is plainly. It’s the joint statement BRICS heads of state agreed on at Bharat Mandapam, themed “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability.” It’s long, it’s dry, and it sets the bloc’s position for the next twelve months. That’s why I read it properly instead of reacting to headlines.

How we got here

Kazan, 2024: BRICS launches the Cross-Border Payments Initiative.

Rio, 2025: leaders back interoperability between national payment systems.

Late 2025: India takes over the chairship.

January 2026: the RBI proposes connecting member central bank digital currencies for trade and tourism, with currency swaps to handle imbalances.

February 2026: India hosts the AI Impact Summit, endorsed by 88 countries.

Through 2026: more than 400 meetings across 30 Indian cities feed the draft.

May 2026: the New Development Bank meets in Moscow.

10 September: Reuters reports India is still pushing the CBDC link against resistance.

11 September: India and Russia talk digital settlement as trade nears $60 billion.

12 September: adopted unanimously.

13 September: summit wraps.

So, is there crypto in it?

Yes, but not where people are looking.

Paragraph 90 is the payments paragraph. It notes the Payment Task Force’s work on interoperability and local-currency settlement, then adds that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. I’ve read enough of these to know what that phrasing means. It means someone said no. There is no CBDC link and no shared token.

Paragraph 42 is the one that will actually affect your business. It puts illegal virtual asset flows in the same sentence as terror financing and money laundering, and names cross-border scam compounds exploiting payment rails.

Paragraph 95 is my quiet favourite. The Fintech Working Group is looking at quantum computing in finance. Give that five years.

My honest read

These documents move at the speed of the least willing member. China isn’t putting CIPS under a shared rail. Russia wants sanctions-proof settlement yesterday. The Gulf members are pegged to the dollar. Vague wording is what unanimity costs. Real de-dollarisation here is happening through bilateral invoicing, not a BRICS coin.

What I’m watching

NDB local-currency lending, the proposed Risk Lab at GIFT City, and paragraph 94’s quiet workshop on settlement and depositary systems.

Conclusion

Delhi gave us no crypto policy. It gave us a compliance signal and a stalled payments file. If you run an exchange in India, paragraph 42 reaches you long before paragraph 90 ever does.