12th BRICS Parliamentary Forum in New Delhi Explained: What the 26-27 October Meeting Is About, and Why It Matters
Key Takeaways
- The 12th BRICS Parliamentary Forum is being held on 26-27 October 2026 in the Central Hall of Samvidhan Sadan, New Delhi, hosted by the Parliament of India.
- Its theme is 'Strengthening Parliaments for People-Centric Development', discussed through four sessions on resilience, innovation, cooperation and sustainability.
- Presiding Officers and delegations from 11 BRICS member countries and 10 partner countries are taking part, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi scheduled to attend.
- Iran's Parliament Speaker cancelled his visit on 25 October 2026 citing unforeseen circumstances, but Iran is represented by a parliamentary delegation.
- A Joint Statement was to be finalised by delegation secretaries on 25 October; the forum's statement is political, not legally binding, and its real test is follow-through in national parliaments.
What is happening in New Delhi on 26-27 October
The Parliament of India is hosting the 12th BRICS Parliamentary Forum on 26 and 27 October 2026 in the Central Hall of Samvidhan Sadan, New Delhi. The conference is inaugurated on 26 October and concludes on 27 October. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla announced the forum at a press conference at Parliament House on 22 October, describing it as a new chapter in India's parliamentary diplomacy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to attend the forum and meet the leaders of the visiting delegations, according to the Lok Sabha Secretariat's announcement reported by ANI. Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh, Union Ministers, Presiding Officers of State Legislatures and Members of Parliament are also taking part, alongside parliamentary leaders from BRICS member and partner countries.
The overarching theme of the forum is "Strengthening Parliaments for People-Centric Development". In plain language, the meeting asks a simple question: how can parliaments, which make laws and hold governments to account, work together so that development serves ordinary people rather than only governments and markets? That theme runs through all four of the forum's high-level sessions.
Who is taking part
Reports of the announcement say the forum brings together Presiding Officers and parliamentary delegations from 11 BRICS member countries and 10 partner countries. BRICS began as a grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and has since expanded, so the parliamentary forum now has to build agreement across a much wider and more diverse set of legislatures than it did in its early years.
Alongside the plenary sessions, the programme includes bilateral and multilateral meetings, meetings of parliamentary friendship groups, parallel meetings and cultural activities. The Vice-President of India is hosting a banquet in honour of the visiting dignitaries. A special meeting of the Chairpersons of International Affairs Committees from the parliaments of BRICS member and partner countries is also scheduled, focused on parliamentary diplomacy, capacity building and the exchange of best practices.
This breadth matters. A parliamentary forum is not a summit of heads of government, and it does not sign trade deals or treaties on the spot. Its influence works differently: legislators compare how their own parliaments handle the same problems, agree on common language, and carry that language back into their own law-making and oversight work at home.
The four sessions, explained
The forum's discussions are organised into four high-level sessions. Each one takes a broad global challenge and asks what parliaments, specifically, can do about it.
Resilience: stronger institutions for a better future
The first session looks at the critical role of parliaments in strengthening institutions. Institutions here means the rules, procedures and public bodies that keep a country running through elections, crises and changes of government. A resilient parliament is one that can debate openly, scrutinise spending, pass laws in an orderly way and remain trusted by citizens even when politics is sharply divided. For BRICS countries, which have very different political systems, the discussion is about shared institutional habits — transparency, orderly law-making and accountability — rather than about copying any one country's model.
Innovation: human-centred artificial intelligence and digital technology
The second session focuses on promoting human-centred innovation in artificial intelligence and digital technologies through parliaments. This is, in effect, a debate about legislative oversight of AI. As AI systems spread into hiring, policing, credit, health and public services, parliaments face questions that no single regulator can settle alone: who is accountable when an automated system makes a wrong decision, how should personal data be protected, and how can innovation be encouraged without leaving citizens unprotected? By discussing these questions together, legislators can learn from one another's early laws and mistakes instead of each country starting from scratch.
Cooperation: a more representative system of global governance
The third session addresses ensuring a more representative system of global governance through parliamentary cooperation. Global governance means the web of international bodies — the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and others — that set rules affecting trade, finance, climate and security. Many developing countries have long argued that these bodies still reflect the power balance of the mid-twentieth century rather than today's world. The forum's argument is that parliaments, as the elected voice of citizens, should have a stronger say in pushing for reform of those institutions, so that decisions taken far away carry democratic legitimacy at home.
Sustainability: an inclusive future for BRICS countries
The fourth session examines the role of parliaments in ensuring a sustainable and inclusive future. Sustainability here covers both the environment and livelihoods: clean energy, water, food security and jobs that do not leave large sections of society behind. Parliaments matter because climate and development goals only become real when they are written into budgets, laws and monitoring systems. A declaration is easy to applaud; a budget line, a reporting requirement and a committee hearing are what make it stick.
What happened just before the forum opened
The days before the opening showed both the promise and the limits of such a gathering. On 25 October, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla held bilateral talks with the Chairman of the State Duma of Russia, Vyacheslav Volodin, to discuss India-Russia parliamentary cooperation. According to the Lok Sabha Secretariat, the two sides discussed the Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership between India and Russia, the completion of 80 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries, regular exchanges of parliamentary delegations, dialogue among young and women parliamentarians, and the possibility of a meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Commission between the two parliaments.
On the same day, Birla also met parliamentary delegations from Cuba, Egypt and Belarus, discussing parliamentary exchanges, legislative best practices, capacity building and, in the case of Belarus, stronger banking linkages to support trade. He underlined India's commitment to amplifying the voice of the Global South through multilateral platforms including BRICS.
There was also a last-minute change. Iran's Parliament Speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, cancelled his planned visit to New Delhi for the forum, with the Iranian Embassy in India citing unforeseen circumstances in an announcement on 25 October. Iran is nevertheless being represented at the meeting by a parliamentary delegation, according to the embassy, which thanked the Indian government for the arrangements and expressed hope that the meeting would strengthen parliamentary cooperation. The episode is a reminder that attendance at such forums can shift at short notice, and that a delegation's presence matters even when its head cannot travel.
A meeting of the Secretaries of the delegations was held on 25 October to finalise the Joint Statement of the forum. Lok Sabha Speaker Birla has said he hopes the forum will conclude with a joint declaration agreed by all countries, following the pattern of earlier BRICS meetings. Whether that hope is fulfilled will be one of the clearest tests of the two days: a unanimous statement signals that diverse parliaments could agree on common language, while a weak or divided outcome would show the limits of consensus.
Background: what is the BRICS Parliamentary Forum?
The BRICS Parliamentary Forum is the legislative arm of BRICS cooperation. While BRICS summits bring together heads of state and government, and ministerial meetings bring together foreign, finance and other ministers, the parliamentary forum brings together the people who make and scrutinise laws. It gives legislators a direct channel to one another, outside the executive branch, and a place to discuss how international agreements will actually be implemented at home.
India is hosting the forum during its BRICS chairship, which began on 1 January 2026. Reports note that this is India's fourth time chairing BRICS, after 2012, 2016 and 2021. The previous edition of the parliamentary forum, the 11th, was held in Brasilia in 2025. Each host country shapes the agenda, and India's choice of "people-centric development" as the theme reflects its broader pitch: that global cooperation should be judged by its effect on jobs, health, education and everyday security, not only by trade figures or summit declarations.
That pitch also connects to India's wider diplomacy in 2026. In the same month, India has been expanding trade openings, including a free trade agreement with New Zealand that entered into force on 20 October 2026. Parliamentary forums do not negotiate such agreements, but they shape the political climate in which agreements are debated, ratified and monitored. When legislators from partner countries meet face to face, they gain a clearer sense of what their counterparts can and cannot accept at home.
Why it matters for India
For India, hosting the forum carries three kinds of value. First, it puts New Delhi at the centre of a conversation about how global rules should change, at a time when many developing countries feel under-represented in existing institutions. Second, it gives Indian legislators — including Presiding Officers from State Legislatures, not only national leaders — direct contact with counterparts from across the Global South and beyond, which can inform state-level law-making on technology, climate and governance. Third, it tests India's ability to build consensus among countries that disagree on many issues, including the ongoing tensions in West Asia, which are not on the official agenda but may be raised on the sidelines.
For ordinary readers, the forum matters in a quieter way. The laws that govern AI, data, climate finance and global trade are increasingly shaped by international discussion before they reach any national parliament. A forum like this is one of the places where that early discussion happens. Its sessions on AI oversight and sustainable development, for example, may influence how future Indian laws on technology and the environment are framed — even if no single law can be traced back to a single speech in New Delhi.
What to watch next
Three things are worth watching as the forum concludes on 27 October. The first is the Joint Statement: does it emerge with the agreement of all delegations, and does it contain specific commitments on AI oversight, governance reform and sustainability, or only general language? The second is the bilateral track: do the meetings between Birla and visiting delegations produce concrete follow-ups, such as a date for the next India-Russia Inter-Parliamentary Commission meeting or new parliamentary exchange programmes? The third is the follow-through: do the ideas discussed in New Delhi reappear in the work of national parliaments, in committee reports, questions to government and draft laws, in the months ahead?
It is also worth being clear about what the forum cannot do. It cannot end wars, rewrite the rules of the United Nations, or force any government to change its economic policy. Its statements are political, not legally binding. Judging it by that standard would miss its point — and judging it only by its closing statement would miss the slower, less visible work of legislators learning from one another.
Conclusion
The 12th BRICS Parliamentary Forum is, at its core, an attempt to give parliaments a collective voice in a world where many of the biggest decisions cross borders. Its theme, its four sessions and its wide participation all point in the same direction: development should be measured by its effect on people, and parliaments should help set the rules by which that development happens. Whether the New Delhi meeting lives up to that ambition will depend less on the ceremony of its opening than on the statement it produces, the partnerships it deepens, and the laws and oversight that follow in its member countries in the year ahead.