BRICS: Delhi Declaration negotiations continue

Sherpas and special representatives of BRICS members are holding intensive pre-summit talks in Delhi to finalise the joint “Delhi Declaration,” with differences over language on the West Asia conflict still being worked through. Indian officials have described the Sherpa channel as the main mechanism to bridge gaps—particularly between Iran and the UAE—so that leaders can adopt a cohesive statement at the summit.

The tourism angle to watch is whether the summit moves beyond reiterating past commitments on intra-BRICS travel cooperation and the Green Tourism Alliance toward concrete, implementable measures. The Jaipur Tourism Ministers’ Communiqué, adopted in August, set four priorities: leveraging AI in tourism, advancing sustainability, upgrading skills, and enabling seamless travel exchanges and facilitation. The September summit therefore offers the first real test of whether those priorities are being translated into deliverables such as shared data frameworks, visa-facilitation pilots, or coordinated marketing initiatives.

Until the official summit text is released, any claim of a “new BRICS tourism agreement” would be premature. The more meaningful editorial lens is progress versus repetition: are the bloc’s tourism declarations evolving into actionable travel corridors and joint projects, or simply restating earlier aspirations?

The tourism discussions build directly on the Jaipur Declaration, which placed tourism cooperation among the wider BRICS priorities under India’s chairship.

The emphasis on seamless travel exchanges and facilitation also connects with the wider push toward digital and contactless international travel, including interoperability between digital identity systems.

For India, the practical value of such cooperation will ultimately depend on whether policy commitments translate into easier movement and stronger international connectivity. Recent expansion of India’s e-Visa entry network is one example of how facilitation can become an operational tourism tool.

The discussion also sits within a broader effort to make India more competitive through reforms around visa processes and ease of doing business in tourism.

If BRICS cooperation eventually produces meaningful cross-border travel mechanisms, it could also strengthen the bloc’s position as a network of connected source and destination markets rather than a collection of separate tourism economies.