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What do 20 years of BRICS cooperation look like? One answer, I thought after reading a recent story from an Indian publication, sits in the driver’s cabin of a train outside Delhi. At the controls is Shivani, a young woman from a farming family in Uttar Pradesh. Until recently, she had never driven a car. Today, she operates one of India’s semi high-speed Namo Bharat trains, traveling at speeds her family could hardly have imagined when she was growing up.

The story is a personal one. But there’s a larger story too. India built the railway to meet its needs for connectivity. The New Development Bank, founded by the BRICS countries, supported part of the project.

Different Countries, Different Strengths

Twenty years on, BRICS is a larger and more diverse family. Its members span four continents and differ in almost every obvious way: history, political systems, economic structures and development priorities.

China has a complete industrial system, a huge market and growing strengths in the digital economy and advanced manufacturing. India and Indonesia bring large populations and rapidly expanding domestic markets. Russia, Brazil and Gulf countries have major advantages in energy, minerals, agriculture and other strategic resources. Egypt, South Africa and Ethiopia have strengthened BRICS’s presence in Africa, while the United Arab Emirates has become an important hub for finance, logistics and global trade.

That diversity may be one of BRICS’ greatest assets. The group has what many economies need but cannot provide alone: resources, factories, technology, energy, large consumer markets and access to major trade routes.

A farm needs buyers. A factory needs energy and raw materials. A port needs cargo. A growing industry needs investment and technology. The challenge is to find more places where their strengths can work together.

Where Cooperation Ranks First

Egypt is one such place. Along the Suez Canal, Indian companies are investing in new industrial projects, attracted to Egypt’s location and its role as a bridge between Africa, the Middle East and Europe. In August, on the sidelines of the BRICS Trade Ministers’ Meeting in Jaipur, Egypt and India explored new opportunities for cooperation in pharmaceutical and fertilizer manufacturing, while continuing discussions on establishing an Indian industrial zone in Egypt’s Suez Canal Economic Zone.

This is just one example of cooperation among BRICS countries. There are synergies that can arise from Brazil’s agricultural strength, Gulf finance, African markets, and China’s industrial capacity.

China also has an important role in building this integrated economic network. As the largest economy in BRICS, China brings a vast market and experience in infrastructure, supply chains and advanced technologies.

Today, in the Benban Solar Park in Egypt, rows of solar panels harness the region’s abundant sunshine to generate much-needed electricity for local communities and businesses. On the outskirts of João Câmara in Brazil, the Gameleira Wind Complex, built by a Chinese company, supplies around 360 million kilowatt-hours of clean electricity each year; equivalent to saving about 129,600 tonnes of standard coal. By supporting renewable energy and low-carbon infrastructure projects across BRICS countries, China is helping its partners pursue a new path of industrialization that is more clean and efficient.

This is where the larger significance of BRICS+ can be found: The wider network in which countries once looked mainly toward traditional centers to drive economic growth, can now increasingly find opportunities and alternatives among one another.

Diverse Paths, Shared Interests

What has held BRICS together for 20 years is the recognition that countries can have different paths and still share important common interests: Development, trade, investment, financing, industrial growth and a greater voice for emerging and developing countries. The real test is if those different paths can lead to practical cooperation.

Twenty years ago, the mechanism began with four foreign ministers meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations’ annual General Assembly. Today, it has grown into a broader and more diverse family of countries, brought together by the prospect of mutually beneficial cooperation. The answers to this cooperation will appear in nations’ socio-economic data. But it’s also already visible in other forms: A wind farm generating power in Brazil’s outskirts, an industrial zone near the Suez Canal…and a 24-year-old Indian girl who now sits at the controls of a faster train.

Ethiopia Boosts Drone Production to Fight Rebels

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September 13, 2026

Ethiopia Boosts Drone Production to Fight Rebels

Ethiopia has been manufacturing drones at two factories since last year and is now thought to have a fleet of thousands, analysts say, giving the government an edge against its multiple insurgent enemies. Turkish drones were decisive during the country’s devastating civil war of 2020 to 2022, when the federal army used them to push back rebels from the northern Tigray region who had come within 200 kilometres of the capital, Addis Ababa. Only the federal army has military drones in the country of 130 million people, and they have been deployed repeatedly against insurgents operating in several regions. Increasingly, they are made domestically. In March 2025, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed inaugurated the SkyWin Aeronautics Industries factory in the capital, manufacturing “unmanned aerial vehicles for both civilian and military use”, according to the state’s Ethiopian News Agency, which said they were “designed and built by our own young professionals”. Abiy said the aim was not “not to fuel conflict, but to prevent it” through “deterrence”. But much of Ethiopia’s capability remains a mystery, and the authorities have refused access to the site for foreign media. … Ethiopia has bought Turkey’s top-end Akinci drones and the more basic Bayraktar TB2 models, as well as the cheaper Wing Loong from China and Mohajer-6 from Iran. (AFP)

Hijacking Pirates Exploit Regional Chaos to Return to Seas off Somalia

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September 13, 2026

Hijacking Pirates Exploit Regional Chaos to Return to Seas off Somalia

The scourge of Somali piracy targeting cargo ships and smaller dhows off the Horn of Africa has returned to levels not seen in a decade, driven by a convergence of factors including disruptions to the shipping industry caused by the US-Israeli war against Iran and a resurgence of political instability in Somalia. … Insufficient patrol vessels and an inability to regularly pay salaries to those involved in coastal patrols are among the reasons why Somalia has long-struggled to secure its coastline. Piracy has historically thrived during periods of increasing instability and political, factional and regional competition. Observers say the recent rise in incidents has been exacerbated by a domestic and international focus on arms smuggling to Yemen by networks acting on behalf of Iran. Analysts suggest some of these networks have become increasingly associated with Somalia’s Islamist al-Shabaab group as it once again expands its territorial control in central and southern Somalia and seeks to build ties with the Houthis in Yemen. … Officials say the recent attacks have also been marked by increased technological sophistication on the part of pirate groups, including the use of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service to facilitate the tracking of potential targets and for high-speed communications between pirates. (The Guardian)

Trove of Documents Reveals Alleged Chemical Weapons Stockpile in Sudan

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September 13, 2026

Trove of Documents Reveals Alleged Chemical Weapons Stockpile in Sudan

Sudan’s authoritarian government built a secret stockpile of chemical weapons that senior military officials sought to conceal after chlorine bombs were used against rebel forces, according to internal videos, documents, text messages and other materials reviewed by The Washington Post. The materials indicate that Sudan’s chemical weapons effort involved diverting shipments of chlorine meant to provide safe drinking water, hiding warhead production sites on military bases, testing bombs in remote desert locations and drawing up lists of targets where toxic gas could penetrate enemy defenses. … Any stockpiling and use of chemical weapons would violate long-standing international bans aimed at eradicating a notoriously inhumane form of warfare, and put Sudan in the company of Syria and Iraq as states that have been condemned in recent decades for deploying chemical agents against their own people. … The files include documents allegedly prepared by Sudanese military officials that refer to “dual-effect” munitions filled with “choking gas,” videos that show weapons tests producing plumes of green-yellow vapor, and messages between Sudanese military officials indicating that the country’s security forces had stockpiled as many as 290 chemical munitions. … The files also indicate that SAF officers were focused on covering their tracks. The same document includes Arabic text saying that “the main purpose of the new design is to conceal any evidence of the use of chemicals and to release the gas from the tank directly in a perfect way,” according to a Washington Post translation. (The Washington Post)