United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is set to highlight the significance of a multipolar world and the urgent need to overhaul multilateral bodies, including the Security Council, so they better reflect current global realities when he speaks at the BRICS Summit in India later this week.
Mr. Guterres is scheduled to visit New Delhi on Thursday, September 10, 2026, to participate in the 18th BRICS Summit, which will take place in the city on September 12–13.
He has been invited to speak at the Open Session on September 13 on the theme, ‘Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability: Shaping the Future for Inclusive Global Growth’.
In his address, the Secretary-General is expected to emphasize that the current economic, demographic, and geopolitical landscape is fundamentally different from that of 1945, and that the nations participating in the summit reflect this evolving reality, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters during the daily press briefing at United Nations headquarters on Wednesday, September 9, 2026.
Mr. Guterres is also expected to emphasize that a multipolar world can help restore equilibrium in global systems and institutions, though this would necessitate reforms to multilateral bodies, including the Bretton Woods framework and the UN Security Council, to better reflect contemporary realities, he said.
The push for Security Council reform has long been championed by India and several other nations, which contend that the current 15-member structure fails to adequately represent the geopolitical and economic landscape of the 21st century.
India has been pursuing a permanent position on the Council as part of its broader push for extensive reforms to the UN’s highest decision-making body.
Mr. Guterres is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and conduct bilateral discussions with other officials participating in the summit, Dujarric said.
India will serve as the BRICS Chair in 2026.
As a founding member of BRICS, it has previously held the chairship in 2012, 2016, and 2021. The country took on its fourth BRICS chairship on January 1, aligning with the bloc’s 20th anniversary of its formation.
The 18th BRICS Summit will convene leaders from BRICS member states, partner nations, and outreach invitees.
The gathering is expected to engage in in-depth discussions on several urgent global issues, notably the economic impact of the crisis in West Asia.
The theme of India's BRICS chairship is "Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability".
Mr. Guterres, whose second five-year tenure as UN Secretary-General concludes in December 2026, most recently visited India in February to participate in the India-AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi. This summit, the first global AI conference hosted in the Global South, centered on the guiding principles of "People, Planet, and Progress."
