The 2026 BRICS Summit was the second for Uganda since its formal admission as a partner state in 2025, into one of the world’s most consequential and fastest-expanding coalitions of emerging economies. As the first East African nation to reach this milestone, Uganda needs to view its participation in an expanding BRICS not as a diplomatic achievement in itself, but as a strategic development opportunity. Kampala’s main focus should be on converting this position within BRICS into greater diplomatic leverage, investment opportunities, and alternative sources of development financing, while positioning itself as the region’s gateway into the broader BRICS economy. A strategy that combines these objectives will be key to turning this unique diplomatic window into opportunities that reinforce the national development goals articulated in Vision 2040.
While the current status under the BRICS framework does not grant Uganda voting rights, this position nonetheless offers diplomatic opportunities with great potential to become transformative, arguably even more important than setting the country on a path to eventual full membership. Going into future summits, therefore, the key question should become: what more can be achieved with this access, even before full membership comes into the picture?
As a group with nearly half the world’s population and a 40% share of global GDP, BRICS offers Uganda a huge consumer market, a major source of capital, alternative sources of development financing, and the added benefit of major technological capabilities, all while building a wide diplomatic network. Taken together, these widen the spectrum of benefits and prospects for national transformation, among which is breaking overreliance on a single dominant partner, the West, which also represents a strategic stranglehold on national growth prospects. However, this is not to suggest that all the above benefits will automatically materialize simply by flying into the BRICS orbit. On the contrary, their attainment is linked to a combination of painstaking strategy and diligent execution, the inroad to turning inclusion into benefits, and opportunity into results.
Over the last 20 years, BRICS has grown in both geographical reach and economic weight, and continues on this path. With a membership of eleven emerging economies, and dozens of other nations awaiting admission, the trend signals both growing diplomatic and economic influence, something many small nations in the Global South could leverage in their efforts to transform into modern economies. Moreover, as BRICS’ global importance in agenda-setting grows, so too does Uganda’s diplomatic role, as it contributes to norm-setting within the platform. Integration into high-level engagements within the group also implies a growing diplomatic footprint that will, in turn, increase Uganda’s influence and expand its role in regional, continental, and Global South diplomacy.
Turning Diplomatic Engagement into Practical Economic and Trade Cooperation
Since joining BRICS, Uganda has experienced increased high-level diplomatic engagement, both within the group and with individual member states. This includes accelerating the work and broadening the scope of the Uganda-Russia Intergovernmental Framework last year, just as one example. This has also culminated in the operationalization of bilateral and multilateral arrangements in trade, science and technology, and industrial innovation. But the most immediate outcome with the greatest consequence has been access to the New Development Bank (NDB), an alternative channel for development financing, and the diversifying of foreign policy beyond traditional Western powers.
Now, with access to the NDB, pursuing integration with alternative payment systems such as Russia’s SPFS and China’s CIPS will not only play a critical role in diversifying and facilitating trade but will also go a long way in de-risking it. Held together with ongoing domestic and regional infrastructure development, the two will reduce overreliance on the dollar and expand trade opportunities, serving as a strong engine for growth. Nevertheless, this, pursued exclusive of agricultural modernization, technology, and skills and knowledge transfer, may not be as consequential. While the latter establishes connectivity and grows national output of tradable goods, the former stands as a key factor in de-risking trade by cushioning growth aspirations from an increasingly risky geo-economic environment.
It is also my strong conviction that with access to the NDB, Uganda has gained access to an alternative source of financing, one it must make use of, especially as it prioritizes large-scale infrastructure projects. As the region’s sole BRICS partner, Uganda should aim to establish itself as a regional logistical and manufacturing hub for the BRICS economy. Here, the pitfall that must be avoided is becoming merely a market for BRICS goods. Instead, its status within the alliance ought to be viewed in terms of the market potential, a relationship to be leveraged for capital, technology, and industrial machinery to boost production and exports.
Uganda’s strong positions in minerals and other natural resources, agriculture, and tourism need to be backed by vibrant industrial value addition, plus a strong service sector, for better outcomes. In collaboration with regional and BRICS partners, Uganda has the opportunity to become a regional economic corridor for this market. The NDB, here, must be leveraged as an alternative to slow-moving, red-tape-riddled Western financing if the country is to undertake the large-scale infrastructure projects needed to achieve this objective. Indeed, this should be treated as critical to circumventing the limitations posed by a modest market of 48 million people.
Uganda’s message at the summit was vivid, emphasizing strategic autonomy and Global South solidarity. Within this very framework, however, Uganda needs to focus more on diversification than wholesale geopolitical alignment, and on outcomes rather than symbolism. The structure of BRICS is free from some of the key flaws common to Western-dominated multilateral platforms. Working within the former, Uganda is capable of achieving more, as long as its actions within the platform are guided by a clear strategy.
