Putin arrives in India for BRICS summit coloured by wars

• Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in New Delhi for the BRICS summit, which will focus on conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, along with economic challenges.
• The summit sees major players like China and Iran attending, highlighting tensions and attempts at diplomacy amid rivalries and ongoing wars.
• India aims to balance relations with conflicting countries while navigating energy needs and maintaining strategic partnerships, including with Russia and Western nations.

NEW DELHI – Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in the Indian capital of New Delhi on Sept 11 ahead of an 11-member BRICS summit set to be dominated by the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, as well as economic challenges.

Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian were due to hold talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while Chinese President Xi Jinping was also expected to meet him on the sidelines of the two-day meeting, according to Indian diplomatic sources.

Putin arrived at Palam Air Force Station in New Delhi, where he was greeted by India’s Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh, according to footage broadcast by Russia’s Ria Novosti news agency.

For China’s Xi, it will be his first visit to India since 2019 and marks the biggest step yet in a cautious thaw between the rival neighbours, six years after a deadly military clash along their disputed Himalayan border.

Ties between the nuclear-armed giants have been warming again recently, with flights, visas and high-level contacts gradually being restored. But deep mistrust remains, with their contested frontier, a widening trade deficit and strategic rivalry still complicating ties.

‘Fault line’

Posters of a beaming Modi line streets across New Delhi to welcome leaders, with heavy deployments of security forces across the capital and widespread traffic restrictions in central districts. Delhi police have urged people to be patient and cooperative.

BRICS was created in 2009 as a forum for major emerging economies seeking greater influence in institutions dominated by Western powers.

It has since expanded and now includes Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – three countries with sharply differing positions on the war launched by the US and Israel in February.

“The Gulf conflict is going to be the central fault line this time during the BRICS summit,” said Harsh V. Pant of India’s Observer Research Foundation.

“What was seen until last year as an achievement – the expansion of BRICS – today looks like a big constraint on BRICS,” Pant said.

It will be Pezeshkian’s first visit to India as Iranian president, and will put the Middle East conflict firmly on the agenda.

“The war in Iran will provide a stern test of the (expanded) group’s cohesion,” said Shilan Shah of Capital Economics, noting the failure of the BRICS foreign ministers to agree on a joint statement when they met in New Delhi in May.

India maintains cordial relations with Iran and Israel, but is also careful to strike a delicate balance in its ties with Washington.

India has navigated the energy crisis caused by the Iran war in part by turning to Russia, one of its most important strategic partners and its most controversial fuel supplier in recent years as the war against Ukraine drags on.

Putin last visited India in December 2025, but he also met Modi in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, in September.

Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar visited Kyiv in September, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was “grateful to India for its commitment to ending this unjust war”. AFP