The 2023 BRICS Summit in Johannesburg produced the New Delhi Declaration framework, expanding membership to six new nations — Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and UAE — from January 2024. India supported expansion while resisting any anti-Western monetary posturing. Separately, India-China ties remained strained despite diplomatic engagement at the summit margins. The East-West oil pipeline, linking Caspian energy reserves to European markets, also surfaced as a geopolitically significant infrastructure corridor relevant to energy security discussions.

The BRICS grouping — Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa — was formalised in 2009 (first summit in Yekaterinburg). Its 2023 Johannesburg Summit was the 15th BRICS Summit and the first in-person summit post-COVID. The headline outcome was the invitation to six new countries, effectively creating 'BRICS+' from January 2024 — the largest single expansion since the bloc's formation.

India's position at BRICS is nuanced. India benefits from the platform for Global South advocacy, trade diversification, and multilateral financial institutions like the New Development Bank (NDB, headquartered in Shanghai, established 2014). However, India has consistently resisted moves to de-dollarise global trade in ways that could antagonise Western partners or undermine India's own strategic autonomy — particularly relevant given India-US ties under the IPEF and Quad frameworks.

The India-China bilateral dimension is critical: despite both being BRICS founding members, LAC tensions since Galwan (2020) mean India must balance engagement with strategic caution. The East-West oil pipeline (Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan or INSTC-linked corridors) matters because India's International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) intersects with Caspian energy geopolitics — connecting to Iran, Azerbaijan, and onward to Russia and Europe. Energy security and alternative trade routes are recurring UPSC themes tied to India's connectivity diplomacy.