The 18th BRICS summit opened Saturday and on day one adopted a 45-page New Delhi
Declaration and backed a payment architecture intended to route cross-border
trade outside the Western-dominated financial system. The declaration commits
members to expand trade and investment settlement in their domestic currencies
and to link national payment and messaging systems so transactions need not be
routed via the dollar-denominated SWIFT network. A BRICS payment working group
reviewed cross-border interoperability and the use of local-currency settlement
and investment. The principal mechanism highlighted is BRICS Pay, a
decentralized payment-messaging framework designed to stitch India’s UPI and
Russia’s SPFS into a shared interoperability layer to clear payments outside
SWIFT. Leaders characterized the move as incremental for most members; for
Iran—subject to US comprehensive sanctions, a maritime blockade and roughly six
months of conflict with the US and Israel—the arrangement is closer to a
lifeline. India’s prime minister Modi said no member objected to the text.
