Guterres to Press for UNSC, Bretton Woods Reform at BRICS Summit in Delhi
UN chief Antonio Guterres travels to New Delhi for the 18th BRICS Summit, where he will make the case for reforming the Security Council and other multilateral bodies.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will make the case for a shake-up of global governance when he addresses the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi this week, arguing that multilateral institutions must be brought in line with present-day economic, demographic and geopolitical conditions.
Guterres is scheduled to arrive in the Indian capital on Thursday, ahead of the summit on September 12-13. He has been invited to speak at the Open Session on September 13, which is built around the theme "Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability: Shaping the Future for Inclusive Global Growth".
His spokesperson said the Secretary-General is expected to point out that the realities shaping the world today are not those of 1945, and that the countries gathered at the summit represent that changed landscape. Guterres is also expected to stress that multipolarity can help bring balance to global systems and institutions, though he is likely to add that this would depend on reforms to multilateral bodies, including the Bretton Woods system and the Security Council.
Security Council reform has long been sought by India and a number of other countries, which contend that the 15-member body's composition no longer reflects the geopolitical and economic weight of the 21st century. India has been campaigning for a permanent seat on the Council as part of a wider push for comprehensive reform of the UN's top decision-making body.
On the sidelines of the summit, Guterres is expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and hold bilateral discussions with other officials in attendance.
India holds the BRICS chairship for 2026, a role it took up on January 1 — the grouping's 20th anniversary year. It is a founding member of BRICS and has chaired the bloc three times before, in 2012, 2016 and 2021. The theme of India's current chairship is "Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability".
The summit will draw leaders from BRICS member and partner countries as well as outreach invitees, and is expected to take up a range of pressing global challenges, among them the economic fallout of the crisis in West Asia.
For Guterres, whose second five-year term as UN chief ends in December 2026, the visit follows a trip to India in February for the India-AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi — the first global AI summit hosted in the Global South, centred on the principles of "People, Planet, and Progress".