Putin arrives in India for Brics summit set to be overshadowed by Iran and Ukraine wars

Russian President Vladimir Putin has landed in Delhi ahead of a two-day Brics summit gathering leaders from 11 member states. He was welcomed at Palam air force station by India's minister of state for external affairs, Kirti Vardhan Singh, according to footage aired by Russia's Ria Novosti news agency.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are also expected to attend, with both due to hold talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alongside Putin. Xi's trip marks his first visit to India since 2019 and is viewed as a significant step in easing tensions between the two neighbours, six years after a fatal clash on their disputed Himalayan border. While flights, visas and high-level contacts have gradually resumed, deep mistrust persists, compounded by the unresolved border dispute, a growing trade imbalance and continued strategic competition.

Delhi streets have been decorated with posters of Modi, while authorities have deployed extra security and imposed traffic restrictions in central areas of the capital.

Expanded bloc faces internal strain

Brics was founded in 2009 to give major emerging economies more influence in institutions long dominated by Western powers. Its membership has since grown to include Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — countries holding sharply different positions on the war launched by the US and Israel in February. Analysts say the Gulf conflict is likely to be the summit's main point of tension, turning what was once seen as the bloc's expansion success into a source of division. This will be Pezeshkian's first trip to India as president, putting the Middle East war squarely on the agenda, after Brics foreign ministers already failed to reach a joint statement during talks in Delhi in May.

India maintains friendly ties with both Iran and Israel while carefully managing its relationship with Washington. It has partly addressed the energy disruption caused by the Iran war by turning to Russia, a key strategic partner and its most contentious fuel supplier in recent years amid the ongoing war in Ukraine. Putin's last visit to India was in December 2025, though he also met Modi this month in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. India's foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, travelled to Kyiv this month, where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked India for its commitment to ending the war.