Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian urged BRICS members in New Delhi to expand trade in national and local currencies at the BRICS Business Forum on September 11, 2026, arguing it would reduce vulnerability to political shocks.
Speaking at the forum ahead of the 18th BRICS Leaders’ Summit, Pezeshkian said greater use of national currencies should be backed by mechanisms for managing currency risk and reciprocal settlements, and called for digitization and integration of trade infrastructure to make intra-BRICS trade operational rather than merely potential.
The president also urged the New Development Bank to act as a principal financing engine for BRICS infrastructure and energy projects, recommending local-currency lending and guarantees to attract private capital, and proposed a BRICS joint reinsurance company with an initial capital of $10 billion to underwrite major projects, according to reporting from Telegraph India.
India’s commerce minister Piyush Goyal separately used the same forum to press member countries to link payment systems and expand payments in local currencies, highlighting India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) as a model to connect digital payments across borders, the Telegraph report said.
Analysts and delegates at the BRICS Business Forum framed these proposals as part of a wider push within the grouping to reduce reliance on a limited set of dominant currencies and to build more resilient trade and financing channels, a theme Pezeshkian repeated when he warned that concentration on a few currencies makes the system vulnerable to political pressure, according to PressTV.
Masoud Pezeshkian framed the currency proposal as one element of a broader plan to turn BRICS cooperation into concrete projects — from contracts and factories to ports and joint industrial production — and to deepen supply-chain and financial integration across member states, PressTV noted.
For readers focused on the diplomatic and economic continuity around Iran and BRICS, this visit follows reporting that linked Pezeshkian with nearer-term alliance talks and regional finance diplomacy.
Related coverage on this site: see Putin, Pezeshkian reaffirm Russia-Iran alliance amid US war and G20 finance ministers meet in Asheville to focus on economic growth.
Sources
- The Telegraph India — reporting that Pezeshkian and India’s Piyush Goyal called for more BRICS trade in local currencies and that Pezeshkian proposed a $10 billion joint reinsurance company and local-currency lending via the New Development Bank.
- PressTV — coverage of Pezeshkian’s BRICS Business Forum speech in New Delhi urging expanded use of national currencies, digitization of trade processes, and building resilient trade networks.
