Discuss the significance of BRICS as a platform for Global South cooperation on critical minerals and technology access.

At the 18th BRICS Summit (New Delhi, 12–13 September 2026), held under India's Chairship theme "Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability" [1], PM Modi warned that "weaponisation" of technology and critical minerals can hinder shared progress. BRICS is today the Global South's most significant, though not yet decisive, platform on both fronts.

Collective bargaining weight

• After the 2024 expansion, the 11-member grouping unites resource-rich producers (Brazil, Russia, South Africa, Iran, UAE) with large demand centres (India, China), giving it leverage no single developing country commands.
• The New Delhi Declaration sought "reliable, responsible, diversified, resilient, fair, sustainable and just" critical-mineral supply chains — a Global South framing against cartelisation [2].

De-risking mineral supply chains

• The BRICS Logistic Supply Chain Cooperation Framework institutionalises cooperation beyond declaratory politics [2].
• It complements domestic effort: India's National Critical Mineral Mission encourages PSUs and private firms to acquire mineral assets abroad and deepen trade with resource-rich partners [3] — BRICS supplies the diplomatic space, as the India–Brazil rare-earth pact (February 2026) shows.

Norm-setting on technology access

• Modi's Rio (2025) position that no country should weaponise minerals, technology or supply chains for selfish gain [4] advances a norm of non-coercive resource and technology use.
• Emphasis on inclusivity in technology adoption, alongside initiatives on pandemic preparedness and climate-disaster response, addresses tech-access asymmetry facing developing nations.

Limitations

• Internal asymmetry: China dominates mineral processing and is widely read as the implicit target of the weaponisation critique — the platform contains the problem it debates.
• Consensus constraints across divergent members (Iran, Russia versus India, Brazil) and the absence of enforcement keep outcomes voluntary.
• India therefore hedges through parallel arrangements like the Minerals Security Partnership.

BRICS thus matters less as a bloc that can guarantee supplies than as the forum where the Global South converts resource dependence into negotiating strength. Its value will be judged by delivery — operationalising the supply-chain framework and technology-sharing commitments into verifiable outcomes, consistent with Modi's call for "concrete actions, not merely ideas" and with SDG-9's goal of inclusive, resilient industrialisation.