Full Breakdown
BRICS Summit in New Delhi Unveils Open-Source AI Platform and Warns Against Technology Weaponisation
By Drooid · · How we work
Core Event
On the second day of the 2026 BRICS summit in New Delhi, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced a China-led “open-source AI community” for the bloc and invited members to join the World AI Cooperation Organization, a body of 29 countries founded on July 16. The initiative will support large-language-model cooperation, hold specialised AI seminars and training, and create an open ecosystem for artificial intelligence.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted the need for resilient supply chains, an integrated early-warning system for infectious diseases, and initiatives covering logistics, digital agriculture and clean-energy infrastructure.
Background & Context
BRICS, founded in 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India and China, now includes 11 members representing roughly half the world’s population and about 40 % of global GDP. The 2026 summit, under India’s chairmanship, focused on “Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability.”
China’s AI push follows the EU’s AI Act, which tightened rules on high-risk models on August 2. The World AI Cooperation Organization, headquartered in Shanghai, offers a platform without EU-style regulatory oversight.
Data & Statistics
- BRICS membership: 11 countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia).
- Partner nations present: Nigeria, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Vietnam, among others.
- World AI Cooperation Organization signatories: 29 countries, including Russia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Indonesia and Brazil; no EU member state.
- Critical-mineral processing: China handles roughly 90 % of the world’s rare-earth supply.
Official Statements & Responses
- Xi linked the AI agenda to “greater equality in global governance” and urged BRICS nations to defend the rule of law and sovereign equality.
- Modi described rising geopolitical tensions, pandemics, climate disasters and supply-chain shocks as “increasingly negative and far-reaching” for ordinary people, and called for inclusive technology adoption. He outlined concrete outcomes: an early-warning system for infectious diseases, a logistics supply-chain framework, a BRICS-MSME portal and a startup innovation fund.
- Both leaders emphasized moving from “files to real-life impact,” urging time-bound actions.
Verbatim Quotes
- “The number of conflicts and tensions in the world is continuously increasing, and this is having an increasingly negative and far-reaching impact on the lives of ordinary people,” — Narendra Modi, Delhi prime minister
- “Pandemics, climate disasters and supply-chain disruptions have shown that in today’s interconnected world, no crisis remains confined to a single region,” — Narendra Modi, Delhi prime minister
Why It Matters
The AI initiative signals China’s intent to shape the emerging global AI ecosystem outside Western regulatory regimes, giving BRICS members access to large-scale models without EU compliance burdens. Modi’s warning spotlights the strategic vulnerability of supply chains for critical minerals and advanced technologies, underscoring BRICS’s role as a forum for collective resilience.
What’s Next
- China will host the next BRICS summit and convene a forum on AI cooperation during its rotating presidency.
- The World AI Cooperation Organization’s founding agreement, signed on July 16, will guide development of the open-source AI platform, with member states expected to submit joint research proposals in the coming months.
- BRICS members will begin implementing the integrated early-warning system for infectious diseases and the logistics supply-chain framework as outlined in the New Delhi Declaration.
The summit’s outcomes set the stage for deeper technology partnership among emerging economies while highlighting the geopolitical stakes surrounding critical minerals and AI governance.