India invites Bangladesh PM Rahman to attend BRICS summit
India said on August 4, 2026 that it has invited Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman to the outreach session of the 18th BRICS summit, which New Delhi will host on September 12 and 13 as the grouping's current chair. The invitation was extended to him in his capacity as the current chair of BIMSTEC, placing the summit at the intersection of two themes candidates must track together: plurilateral groupings of emerging economies and India's management of its immediate neighbourhood.
What happened
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told a regular media briefing that India had "separately extended an invitation to the Bangladesh prime minister in his capacity as the current chair of BIMSTEC to attend the outreach session of the 18th BRICS Summit". He said the invitation followed "the standard practice being followed in BRICS for the outreach sessions", and that other heads of regional groups had been invited in a similar manner. Jaiswal added that a separate invitation for a bilateral visit to India had been extended to Rahman after he assumed the top office in February. Chinese President Xi Jinping, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Russian President Vladimir Putin are among the leaders expected at the summit, which is expected to deliberate on pressing global challenges including the economic consequences of the West Asia crisis.
Why it matters
The framing of the invitation is the substance of the story: India has approached the Bangladesh Prime Minister through his regional-grouping role rather than as a standalone bilateral guest, and the MEA has been careful to describe this as routine practice applied equally to other heads of regional groups. The separate, still-open invitation for a bilateral visit, extended after Rahman took office in February, suggests the bilateral track is being kept distinct from the multilateral one. For India as BRICS chair, the outreach session is also an instrument of agenda-setting, drawing non-member states and regional blocs into a forum that, on the government's own account, now speaks for a substantial share of global population, output and trade.
Prelims: 18th BRICS summit: New Delhi, September 12-13, 2026; India as chair · BRICS outreach session and invitations to heads of regional groupings · BRICS expansion: Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, UAE in 2024; Indonesia in 2025 · BIMSTEC membership: India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan · BRICS share: about 49.5% of global population, 40% of GDP, 26% of trade.
Mains (GS-II): Examine how India uses its chairship of plurilateral groupings such as BRICS, and their outreach mechanisms, to advance its objectives in the immediate neighbourhood.
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Background
BRICS originally comprised Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. It expanded in 2024 to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates, with Indonesia joining in 2025, and now brings together 11 major emerging economies accounting for around 49.5 per cent of global population, about 40 per cent of global GDP and roughly 26 per cent of global trade. BIMSTEC, the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, comprises India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan.