Putin, Xi, Pezeshkian Head to India for Crucial BRICS Summit

New Delhi will move to the center of global diplomacy this weekend as the leaders of Iran, Russia and China arrive in India for the 18th BRICS summit. The gathering comes at a pivotal moment, with wars and escalating tensions across the Middle East and Europe testing the bloc’s cohesion more severely than at any point since its creation two decades ago.

Scheduled for Sept. 12-13, the summit takes place more than six months after war erupted in the Middle East between the U.S. and Iran, and as fresh instability rattles the region. It also follows closely behind this month’s Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, where several of the same heads of state held talks.

BRICS was formed in 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India and China, later expanding to include countries such as Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

A major focus in New Delhi will be India-Iran relations. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are expected to discuss trade, connectivity, energy cooperation and regional security developments. Their meeting comes less than two weeks after the two leaders reaffirmed what they described as a “longstanding” strategic partnership.

Facing mounting economic pressure from Washington, Tehran has been seeking to strengthen its relationships with Moscow and Beijing. Iran is also pushing to join the BRICS New Development Bank, a move aimed at securing a vital financial lifeline. With many of Iran’s most important remaining economic partners — including China, India, Russia and the UAE — represented in New Delhi, the summit offers Tehran an unusually concentrated opportunity to engage key trading partners as U.S. sanctions pressure intensifies.

China will also be under close scrutiny. President Xi Jinping is set to visit India for the first time in seven years, a closely watched trip that signals the most significant step yet in the cautious easing of tensions between New Delhi and Beijing after their deadly 2020 military clash along the disputed Himalayan border. A Modi-Xi bilateral meeting is expected to center on preserving that fragile normalization while broadening economic engagement, making it one of the summit’s most consequential side meetings.

Russia is another central player at the summit. President Vladimir Putin met Modi on Friday in a pre-summit bilateral session, marking Putin’s first visit to India since the war in Ukraine began four years ago.

Energy and defense ties are expected to lead the discussions, particularly after Putin denounced American tariffs as “illegal” and “unacceptable.”

Earlier this week, the Kremlin highlighted the rapid growth in Russia-India energy cooperation, saying India’s imports of Russian energy have reached a “new record” every month. Moscow has also said it understands India’s stance on the Ukraine war and that New Delhi’s position “to a great extent corresponds” with Russia’s own, while urging India to help advance a peaceful resolution.

The meeting also comes days after Putin publicly welcomed the UAE’s role in facilitating discussions over the Ukraine war, highlighting Abu Dhabi’s increasingly influential diplomatic role as another major BRICS participant.

Saudi Arabia will also be watched after Iran-backed Houthi militia renewed attacks on its cities earlier this week.

Both the UAE and Saudi Arabia have become increasingly central to India’s Gulf strategy. The summit also comes as New Delhi attempts to navigate widening divisions between Tehran and Abu Dhabi after the UAE cut off commercial and financial dealings with Iran. The suspension has already squeezed Indian exporters, as Dubai has long served as a key commercial hub for India’s trade with Iran, giving India a direct economic incentive.

The BRICS summit will be a major test of India’s diplomatic mettle in more ways than one, as the nation finds itself balancing competing interests from Washington, Tehran, Moscow, Beijing and the Gulf while trying to forge unity among BRICS members.

“New Delhi’s leadership of BRICS is ultimately an exercise in managing contradiction. The biggest challenge is to ensure BRICS remains a platform for advancing Global South priorities rather than becoming an arena for great-power rivalry, Harsh V. Pant, vice president at Observer Research Foundation, told News Outlet. “New Delhi is trying to keep the focus on practical cooperation — from energy security to connectivity and development — rather than ideological confrontation.”

Building a unified position among BRICS members will be a complex task for India, especially given the sharp geopolitical divergences among member states, such as the U.S-China rivalry, the Russia-Ukraine war and tensions involving Iran, Israel and the UAE. Modi will have to balance championing his own priorities with the summit’s, as well as toeing the line to avoid an anti-U.S. tilt.

“The balancing act reflects India’s broader foreign policy, which seeks to maintain strong ties with Washington while continuing to engage Moscow, Beijing and Tehran,” Pant said.

Throughout the conflict, India has sought to position itself as a voice for dialogue while avoiding taking sides, emphasizing themes of resilience, sustainability, cooperation and innovation.

But experts warn that failure to reach consensus would expose the limits of the expanded BRICS grouping, whose broader membership has also imported longstanding regional rivalries.

Though major Western powers are absent, analysts say the alliance is not to be dismissed. Every ceasefire in this conflict has involved mediation by BRICS members or partners, and leaders gathering in New Delhi are expected to explore whether the forum can once again provide diplomatic momentum after recent attempts to revive negotiations between Washington and Tehran stalled.

“Hosting the BRICS summit in New Delhi offers India an important opportunity to demonstrate the logic of its multi-alignment at a time when global politics is becoming increasingly polarized, “Pant said. “By bringing together countries such as China, Russia, Iran and the Gulf states while simultaneously deepening its partnerships with the United States and the Quad, India is signaling that it does not accept the binary choices imposed by great-power rivalry.”

The stakes extend beyond diplomacy as disruptions from the war have disproportionately affected developing nations. India, the world’s third-largest oil importer and consumer, has already suffered energy and inflation hits. 

“The real measure of India’s success will therefore be its ability to keep BRICS sufficiently inclusive and functional to address Global South priorities while preventing geopolitical divisions from paralyzing the grouping,” Pant said.