BRICS Summit 2026: China Proposes AI Open Source Zone, Special Economic Zone
The 2026 BRICS leaders' summit in New Delhi closed with Chinese President Xi Jinping announcing a series of concrete economic and technology initiatives under the "Greater BRICS" banner. Specific deal terms were not disclosed for the proposals, which operate at the policy level.
Xi proposed a BRICS AI Open Source Zone, with China leading cooperation on large language models, AI training, and an open AI ecosystem. He also called for a BRICS Special Economic Zone partnership and said China would host a BRICS Service Trade Forum next year to boost trade and investment flows among member states.
A Technology Corridor for the Global South
The AI open-source push aims to weld the expanded bloc, now including Iran, Indonesia, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the UAE alongside the original five members, into a practical platform for Global South development.
Xi told the summit that maintaining stability of industrial and supply chains and cultivating an integrated market are the immediate priorities.
The grouping, chaired by India in 2026 and with China taking the chair in 2027, is positioning itself as a parallel architecture for trade and tech stack development beyond Western-dominated systems.
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Why It Matters for the India–Gulf Corridor
For investors and partners watching the India–Gulf corridor, the summit formalizes three signals: an AI development zone with Chinese infrastructure leadership, a service-trade forum that opens procurement pathways across BRICS members.
And sustained diplomatic scaffolding between India, the UAE, and Iran, evidenced by a joint declaration and a high-level bilateral meeting between the Iranian and Abu Dhabi leadership on the sidelines.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi framed the pitch in accessibility terms. "The benefits of solutions developed within BRICS should not stay limited to BRICS alone, but should be made adaptable and accessible to meet the needs of the Global South," he said in remarks at the summit.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called the bloc a force toward creating a "fairer and multipolar world order" and called for members to combine the competitive advantages of their individual economies.