Putin lands in India for BRICs summit, shadowed by Iran and Ukraine wars

Russian President Vladimir Putin landed in New Delhi on Friday to attend an 11-member BRICS summit that officials and analysts say will be shaped by the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine as well as economic strains facing emerging economies. On the sidelines of the two-day meeting, Putin and Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian are due to hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and China’s Xi Jinping is also expected to meet India’s leader. Footage broadcast by Russia’s Ria Novosti showed Putin being received at Palam Air Force Station by India’s Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh. The capital has been decorated with posters of Modi and placed under heavy security deployments, with central districts facing traffic restrictions and public appeals from Delhi police for patience and cooperation. Analysts say the summit’s expanded membership has complicated its dynamics. BRICS, founded in 2009 by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, now includes countries with divergent stances on the US-Israel-Iran conflict. Harsh V Pant of the Observer Research Foundation warned that the Gulf conflict will be a central fault line at the summit, while Shilan Shah of Capital Economics said the Iran war presents a severe test of the grouping’s cohesion; foreign ministers from the expanded BRICS failed to agree a joint statement when they met in New Delhi in May. India faces sensitive diplomatic balancing as it hosts the talks. New Delhi maintains cordial relations with both Iran and Israel and is careful in its ties with Washington. The country has adjusted its energy sourcing amid the regional tensions in part by turning to Russia, one of its key strategic partners. The summit also follows a string of recent high-level contacts in the region: Putin last visited India in December 2025 and met Modi again this month in Bishkek; India’s foreign minister visited Kyiv this month where President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked India for its commitment to ending the Ukraine war; and Xi’s trip is his first visit to India since 2019, reflecting a cautious thaw despite persistent mistrust over a disputed frontier, a widening trade deficit and strategic rivalry.