Putin arrives in Delhi for divided BRICS summit

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in New Delhi on Friday ahead of a BRICS summit that will test whether the expanded grouping can agree on the wars and economic pressures now dividing several of its members.

Putin was received by minister of state for external affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh. He is due to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, 11 September, before joining the BRICS Business Forum and the formal leaders’ summit on 12 and 13 September.

Warmly welcome President Vladimir Putin of Russia for the 18th BRICS Summit. He was received by MoS @KVSinghMPGonda at the airport.

India and Russia share multifaceted and longstanding ties anchored in Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership.#BRICS2026 #BRICSIndia2026… pic.twitter.com/pwxcO2aHLt

— Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) September 10, 2026

The meeting comes at a difficult moment for the bloc. Iran, a BRICS member since 2024, is at war with the US and Israel, while the conflict has severely disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and driven oil prices sharply higher.

The United Arab Emirates, also a BRICS member, has been caught directly in the regional conflict. After months of Iranian missile and drone attacks in the Gulf, Abu Dhabi announced in August that it was halting all trade, commercial exchanges and financial transactions with Iran until further notice.

That dispute has already spilled into BRICS.

A meeting of BRICS officials on the Middle East and North Africa in New Delhi in April failed to produce a consensus document after Iran and the UAE clashed over the war. The bloc’s foreign ministers were again unable to issue a joint statement when they met in Delhi in May.

Finding language that both Tehran and Abu Dhabi can accept will therefore be central to negotiations over a New Delhi declaration this weekend.

There is some precedent for compromise. At the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Bishkek earlier this month, India joined China, Russia, Iran and the other members in adopting a declaration that condemned military strikes on Iranian territory and criticized unilateral sanctions.

The economic cost of the fighting is meanwhile spreading well beyond the Gulf. Brent crude was trading close to $110 a barrel on Friday as disruption around Hormuz tightened supplies and renewed fears of inflation.

That matters particularly to India, one of the world’s largest crude importers. Russia, Iran and the UAE are major oil producers, giving the energy shock an unusual place inside BRICS itself.

India is also trying to keep the summit focused on economic cooperation rather than allowing the Middle East conflict to dominate it.

Under its 2026 chairmanship, New Delhi has proposed a BRICS Startup Innovation Fund, an incubator network and a logistics supply-chain cooperation framework. India is also seeking closer links between members’ central bank digital currencies to make cross-border payments cheaper and faster.

The payment proposal is likely to expose another set of differences. India has resisted portraying BRICS financial cooperation as an attempt to displace the dollar, while Russia has pushed wider use of national currencies after Western sanctions restricted its access to parts of the international financial system.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said this week that Russia was not seeking “de-dollarization” and remained open to acceptable payment methods.

Putin’s visit also puts India-Russia ties back in focus.

Modi and Putin last met in Bishkek on 31 August, where they reviewed cooperation in political and economic relations, defense, energy, space and mobility. They also discussed the conflicts in the Middle East and the Black Sea region.

Modi said after the meeting that he looked forward to welcoming Putin to India for the BRICS summit.

Their talks in Delhi are expected to return to trade, energy and defense, along with the Ukraine war and the economic effects of the Middle East conflict. Putin is also scheduled to visit the Innoprom India industrial exhibition with Modi.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will arrive for the summit after Beijing formally confirmed his attendance on Thursday.

It will be Xi’s first visit to India in seven years and comes as the two countries cautiously rebuild ties after the 2020 border confrontation pushed relations to their lowest point in decades.

A Modi-Xi meeting would take place against continuing disputes over investment restrictions, market access, visas, Chinese technology exports and India’s large trade deficit with China. The political thaw has moved faster than the commercial relationship.

The summit will not have every BRICS member represented by its national leader.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is not attending, while Saudi Arabia is sending foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan. The UAE will be represented by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed.

The other expected leaders include Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian, South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, Egypt’s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Indonesia’s Prabowo Subianto and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

That is a reminder of how much BRICS has changed.

The original grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa now has 11 members after the addition of Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Indonesia. India says the expanded bloc represents nearly half the world’s population and about 40% of global gross domestic product (GDP).

The expansion has given BRICS greater economic weight and a wider claim to represent developing countries. It has also brought governments with very different security interests, economic systems and relationships with the West into the same room.