Parliamentary diplomacy complements executive-led multilateralism. Examine with reference to India's hosting of the BRICS Parliamentary Forum.

Parliamentary diplomacy means presiding officers and MPs of different countries working with each other, alongside the summits where governments negotiate. India is hosting the 12th BRICS Parliamentary Forum in New Delhi on 26–27 October 2026. Its theme is "Fostering parliaments for people-centric development" [1], and it is part of India's 2026 BRICS Chairship [3]. The forum shows that this track supports executive multilateralism but cannot take its place.

How it complements the executive track

• Democratic legitimacy: it adds elected representatives to a grouping driven by summits and puts the citizen at the centre of BRICS cooperation [1].
• Consensus on sensitive issues: at Brasília (2025), the parliaments of all 10 members jointly condemned the Pahalgam attack and agreed to a zero-tolerance approach to terrorism [4]. Governments often find such wording harder to agree on.
• Agenda-setting: the Delhi agenda covers ethical AI, digital transformation, reform of global governance and sustainable development [1]. These match the priorities of the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi [3].
• Continuity and soft power: BRICS handed the forum's chairmanship to the Lok Sabha Speaker at Brasília [2]. This gives India a lasting role across the Chairship calendar.
• Flexible format: the forum holds both bilateral and multilateral discussions [1], which gives countries informal space to talk.

Limitations

• Not binding: Brasília produced a declaration of shared views, not a treaty or funding [4]. Turning it into action still depends on governments.
• Repeated demands, little change: India called again for UNSC and WTO reform in 2025 [4]. These bodies have not yet changed.
• Uneven engagement: Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia have said they cannot attend [1]. This weakens any joint voice of the expanded group.
• Executive shadow: the PM will attend, but the Leaders of Opposition were not separately invited [1]. This blurs the line between Parliament's diplomacy and the government's.
• Credibility at home: Lok Sabha sittings have fallen from about 120 to about 70 days a year [5].

Way forward

• Include the Leaders of Opposition of both Houses in the Indian delegation by default.
• Set up a follow-up mechanism that feeds forum declarations into summit outcomes.
• Adopt a fixed parliamentary calendar, as the NCRWC recommended (at least 120 sitting days for the Lok Sabha) [5].

Overall, the BRICS Parliamentary Forum builds a shared language, legitimacy and pressure for change, while governments do the binding negotiation. If India's Parliament is bipartisan abroad and active at home, it can make the forum a real partner of the summit track and strengthen the Global South's call for fairer multilateralism.