BRICS expanded faces a crucial moment for multilateralism. The period between the recent summit held in Rio de Janeiro and the upcoming presidency of the bloc in India, in 2026, offers an opportunity to plan the next steps. In its new configuration, following the 2024 expansion, Brazil faces challenges in recalibrating its role within the group.

Within the context of new agendas, governance between annual presidencies becomes increasingly important. Brazil’s effort to assert its leadership hinges on influencing the bloc’s agenda during the next presidency, a process that begins as soon as the Rio summit was concluded.

In this context, the closed-door meeting aims to analyze Brazil’s real capacity to act as a diplomatic bridge between BRICS and its traditional Western interlocutors, especially the European Union, as well as between the 2025 Summit in Brazil and the 2026 Summit under India’s presidency. Based on Brazil’s and New Delhi’s commitment to democracy and multilateralism, the bridge between these two presidencies may represent an effort to ease tensions, providing greater transparency and predictability to decisions made within BRICS.

Additionally, it is essential to deepen the understanding of what can be drawn from the final communiqué, the Leaders’ Declaration of the 17th BRICS Summit, by analyzing the political impacts of the meeting and the developments stemming from the joint declaration.