The actual handover of the BRICS chairmanship from New Delhi to Beijing will take place in three months, but the contours of the group’s near-term agenda can already be identified with reasonable clarity.
As BRICS expands and diversifies, the focus of discussions is shifting from symbolic gestures to issues of practical economic integration. Experts identify seven areas that are highly likely to shape the forum’s work in the foreseeable future—ranging from cross-border payments to the regulation of artificial intelligence. At the same time, a list of topics is emerging whose relevance will gradually diminish.
- Cross-border payments
The first and, perhaps, most pressing priority is ensuring efficient, secure, and affordable cross-border payments. The BRICS initiative on cross-border payments and discussions on greater interoperability among financial systems offer a more realistic path forward than the idea of a single unit of account. National currencies should be used where trading structures and liquidity make such settlements commercially viable.
- Effective Economic Integration
The second area is the creation of a digital gateway for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in BRICS countries. This involves a proven digital platform that connects companies with banks, chambers of commerce, logistics providers, certification bodies, and potential business partners. Entrepreneurs should be able to connect to the platform and get answers to basic questions: who can buy their product, what standards it must meet, how payment will be processed, which bank can finance the transaction, and how the goods will be transported. This is what practical economic integration looks like—not in declarations, but in functioning services.
- Modernization of the Development Bank
The third area concerns the evolution of the New Development Bank (NDB). It must continue to improve, moving away from its role as primarily an infrastructure lender and acquiring tools that facilitate the mobilization of significantly more private capital.
Local-currency financing, blended finance, project preparation, and loan guarantees are expected to become increasingly important. The proposed BRICS multilateral guarantee mechanism is particularly promising: in many developing countries, viable projects fail not because of a complete lack of capital, but because the risk premium makes capital too expensive. Reducing this risk could significantly increase the volume of investment.
- Trade and Logistics Corridors
The fourth area is the strengthening of trade and logistics corridors. Economic integration is impossible without physical connectivity. For India, Iran, and Russia, the North-South International Transport Corridor remains strategically important. The Eastern Maritime Corridor also deserves further attention. However, BRICS should move beyond individual transport routes and begin to think in terms of an integrated logistics environment. Ports, railways, customs, transport documentation, cargo insurance, and logistics data must be increasingly integrated into a digital environment. The future trade corridor will not simply be a railway line or a maritime route—it will be a synergy of physical and digital systems.
- Value Chains: From Trade to Joint Production
The fifth area is integration into value chains. The BRICS countries should move beyond a model in which nations primarily exchange goods with one another. The real opportunity lies in joint value creation. One member country’s energy sector can support manufacturing in another. Resources from one country can feed into another’s processing and technology chains. India’s pharmaceutical industry can integrate with markets and distribution networks in other countries. Russian engineering, energy, and scientific capabilities can be integrated with Indian manufacturing and services. Capital from the Gulf states can support infrastructure and industrial projects in Asia and Africa. This represents a shift from trade in goods to participation in shared value chains.
- Critical Minerals and Energy: The Resource Base for Cooperation
The sixth area is critical minerals and energy. Energy security and the energy transition will increase the strategic importance of lithium, nickel, copper, rare earth metals, and other critical elements. Among the BRICS members are countries with the largest reserves of mineral resources, which generate significant amounts of energy, possess advanced production capacities, and have large consumer markets. This creates an exceptionally solid foundation for cooperation. In the next phase, it would be advisable to focus on joint investments, industrial localization, technological cooperation, and long-term supply agreements.
- Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity, and Digital Trust
The seventh area is artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, and digital trust. AI could become one of the most important areas of BRICS cooperation, but the discussion must go beyond the development of the technology itself. Countries will increasingly have to address issues of data governance, cybersecurity, digital sovereignty, trustworthy AI, cloud infrastructure, skills, and standards. BRICS members will not necessarily adopt identical regulatory systems. However, they have a shared interest in ensuring that governance of new technologies is not determined exclusively by a small number of companies or countries outside the Global South.
Fading Trends: What Is Gradually Losing Relevance
Alongside the priorities listed above, some experts highlight a number of issues whose relevance will gradually diminish. First and foremost is the idea of a single BRICS currency: the economic disparities among member states remain too great, and settlements in national currencies and payment compatibility are far more realistic.
Second, there is the concept of BRICS as an anti-Western platform. The idea of transforming the group into a geopolitical equivalent of NATO is neither realistic nor desirable. India, Brazil, the UAE, and a number of other members maintain substantial ties with Western economies. BRICS will be strongest as a coalition of strategic autonomy and multilateral cooperation, rather than as an ideological alliance.
Third, there is the issue of uncontrolled expansion. Continuous expansion without strengthening institutions will ultimately reduce effectiveness. A balance must be struck between representation and manageability.
Finally, the greatest long-term risk remains the low rate of implementation of plans. BRICS already has a large number of working groups, meetings, declarations, and initiatives—and it is precisely the gap between what has been announced and what has actually been implemented that will determine whether the group can become a real center of economic integration.
The handover of the chairmanship to Beijing opens a window of opportunity to move BRICS from a mode of declarations to one of functioning institutions. The seven areas listed—ranging from payments to AI—form a coherent, practical agenda. However, its implementation will depend not on the number of statements, but on the ability of the group’s members to ensure that their plans are carried out.
Vlad Markin, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of NEO
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