Key Takeaways :
- The New Delhi Declaration was adopted by the leaders on 12 September 2026 when India was in the chair.
- India spent months selling a CBDC link The word “CBDC” does not appear in the final text.
- 42 Paragraph After illegal virtual asset flows and fraudulent compounds.
- It’s not yet on the table in the financial sector but paragraph 95 flags quantum computing.
Everyone asks me what is the Delhi Declaration. So, here it is in simple language. This is the joint declaration made by the BRICS heads of state at Bharat Mandapam under the theme of “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability.” It’s long, it’s dry and it sets out the bloc’s position for the next twelve months. That’s why I read it properly, rather than react to headlines.
How we got here
Kazan, 2024: BRICS launches the Cross-Border Payments Initiative.
Rio, 2025: leaders back interoperability between national payment systems.
Late 2025: India takes over the chairship.
January 2026: the RBI proposes connecting member central bank digital currencies for trade and tourism, with currency swaps to handle imbalances.
February 2026: India hosts the AI Impact Summit, endorsed by 88 countries.
Through 2026: more than 400 meetings across 30 Indian cities feed the draft.
May 2026: the New Development Bank meets in Moscow.
10 September: Reuters reports India is still pushing the CBDC link against resistance.
11 September: India and Russia talk digital settlement as trade nears $60 billion.
12 September: adopted unanimously.
13 September: summit wraps.
So, is there crypto in it?
Yes, but not where people are looking.
Paragraph 90 is the paragraph on payments. It discusses the Payment Task Force work on interoperability and local-currency settlement and says there is no universally applicable approach. I’ve read enough of these things to know what that language means. Which means someone said no. There is no CBDC nexus, no common token.
Paragraph 42 is the one that will really hurt your business. It equates illegal virtual asset flows with terror financing and money laundering, citing cross-border scam compounds exploiting payment rails.
My low-key favorite is para. 95. Quantum Computing in Finance is being explored by the Fintech Working Group. Wait five years.
My honest read
These documents go at the pace of the slowest member. China is not putting CIPS on a shared rail. Russia wants proof of settlement against sanctions today. The Gulf countries peg their currencies to the US dollar. The price of unanimity is vague wording. The real de-dollarisation here is through bilateral invoicing, not a BRICS coin.
Conclusion
Delhi has not given us any crypto policy. It provided us with a compliance signal and a stalled payments file. If you are running an exchange in India, paragraph 42 gets to you well before paragraph 90 ever does.
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