BRICS Talked Big in New Delhi. The Dollar Won Anyway
At its Sept. 12-13 summit, the bloc once again stopped short of a common currency, and India said there is "no proposal" for one "as of now." We argue the "BRICS dollar" keeps fizzling because rivals cannot match America, and because President Trump made the price of trying very clear.
By Clara Hughes
Altas World News Opinion Estimated read time: 7 minutes Key takeaways The BRICS leaders' New Delhi Declaration, adopted at the Sept. 12-13 summit, encouraged the bloc's payment task force to keep working toward "practical solutions" for cross-border payments. It did not call for a common currency [1][3]. A senior Indian foreign ministry official said after the summit: "There is no proposal in the Brics for a Brics currency, as of now" [2]. In our view, deep splits inside the bloc, the dollar's unmatched depth and President Trump's tariff warnings have turned de-dollarization into more talk than action. What happened in New Delhi Leaders of the BRICS group met in New Delhi on Sept. 12 and 13 for their 18th summit, under the theme "Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability" [1]. China's Xi Jinping attended [7]. For years, this bloc has fed headlines about a coming rival to the dollar. The final declaration was far more modest. It acknowledged "the efforts" of the BRICS Payment Task Force, noted studies of linking payment and messaging systems, and acknowledged discussions on trade in local currencies, "acknowledging that there is no one-size-fits-all approach" [1]. It asked the task force to keep working on payments that are "fast, low-cost, more accessible, efficient, transparent, and safe" [1]. That is it. No common currency. No gold-backed "BRICS coin." No plan to dump the dollar. As CNBC reported, the declaration had "no mention of common currency or firmer details" on settling trade and investment in local currencies [3]. The finance ministers who met in Mumbai before the summit took the same careful line. Their joint statement made no mention of a common currency or a formal call to replace the dollar, The Hindu reported [4]. India said the quiet part out loud The clearest words came from the host. Sudhakar Dalela, secretary for economic relations in India's foreign ministry, told reporters: "There is no proposal in the Brics for a Bri…