Leaders of the BRICS group have begun arriving in New Delhi for a two-day summit expected to be dominated by the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, as well as oil and global trade.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa landed in the Indian capital today, while Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian was due later in the day. Chinese President Xi Jinping was expected for the summit itself on September 12-13, in what would be his first visit to India since 2019.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed were also among the leaders expected, Indian media reported. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, UN Secretary-General António Guterres and New Development Bank President Dilma Rousseff were due to attend as well.
Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira has arrived in place of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has stayed at home to campaign ahead of Brazil’s October elections, The Tribune reported.
Putin’s trip is his first in-person attendance at a BRICS summit outside Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine. He joined the 2023 and 2025 summits by video link.
Hosts South Africa and Brazil are both parties to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which issued a warrant for his arrest in March 2023. India is not.
Pezeshkian’s trip is his first to India as President, according to AFP. He and Putin were due to hold separate talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi later today, Outlook India reported.
Modi was scheduled to meet Xi on September 12. In a post on social media, he said he expected positive and meaningful discussions aimed at global welfare.
Members Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates hold sharply differing positions on the war the United States and Israel launched against Iran in February. Harsh V Pant of India’s Observer Research Foundation told AFP the Gulf conflict was “going to be the central fault line” at the gathering.
BRICS foreign ministers failed to agree a joint statement when they met in New Delhi in May, Shilan Shah of Capital Economics noted.
The summit comes as the European Union steps up pressure on Moscow’s energy revenues. Under the bloc’s 21st sanctions package, agreed on July 23, member states won powers to confiscate and sell oil cargoes carried by detained shadow-fleet tankers.
New Delhi, which sealed a free trade agreement with the EU on January 27, has kept buying Russian crude despite pressure from Washington, Outlook India reported.
BRICS held its first summit in 2009 in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Alongside its 11 members, it now counts 10 partner countries, including Belarus and Cuba.
