India welcomes Russia, Iran leaders for BRICS summit overshadowed by war

The presidents of Russia and Iran were in India for talks Friday ahead of a BRICS summit that will bring together leaders including China's Xi Jinping, with wars, trade and energy expected to dominate the agenda.

"The world today is going through a period of unprecedented complexity", Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said, speaking in New Delhi at a forum, ahead of the main summit on Saturday.

Wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, as well as global trade turbulence and oil, are expected to feature prominently at the two-day annual summit.

BRICS was created in 2009 as a forum for major emerging economies seeking greater influence in institutions dominated by Western powers.

"BRICS was established to counter unilateralism", said Pezeshkian, who also met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Iranian president said that pressure on his country "has reached a critical and dangerous stage in recent months following the military aggression by the United States and Israel".

When the summit begins Saturday, Xi's attendance will be key.

Set to arrive on Saturday, it will be his first visit to India since 2019, marking the biggest step yet in a cautious thaw between the rival neighbours, six years after a deadly military clash along their disputed Tibetan border.

Ties between the nuclear-armed Asian giants have been warming again, with flights, visas and high-level contacts gradually being restored.

"China stands ready to work with India... by strengthening communication, enhancing cooperation, and properly handling differences," Beijing's foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Friday.

Deep mistrust remains, with their contested Himalayan frontier, a widening trade deficit and strategic rivalry still complicating ties.

Dozens of Tibetans protested in New Delhi on Friday -- exiles, like their Buddhist leader the Dalai Lama, who has lived in India since fleeing a Chinese crackdown in 1959 -- waving placards against Xi's visit.

Modi embraced President Vladimir Putin on Friday before talks. Putin, who last visited India in December 2025, is one of New Delhi's most important strategic partners.

"One should engage in debate and friendship only with the virtuous, and nothing whatsoever with the unvirtuous," Modi wrote Friday, in a social media message in Sanskrit to welcome leaders to the 11-nation summit.

Posters of a beaming Modi line streets across New Delhi, with heavy deployments of security forces across the capital and widespread traffic restrictions.

- 'Fault line' -

As well as Iran, BRICS includes Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- countries with sharply differing positions on the war launched by the United States and Israel in February.

All three have been admitted to the group in recent years, joining founding member states that include India, China and Russia.

"The Gulf conflict is going to be the central fault line this time during the BRICS summit," said Harsh V. Pant of India's Observer Research Foundation.

"What was seen until last year as an achievement -- the expansion of BRICS -- today looks like a big constraint on BRICS," Pant said.

Pezeshkian's participation -- his first visit to India as Iranian president -- has put the Middle East conflict firmly on the agenda.

"The war in Iran will provide a stern test of the group's cohesion," said Shilan Shah of Capital Economics, noting the failure of the BRICS foreign ministers to agree on a joint statement when they met in New Delhi in May.

UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi are also to attend.

India maintains cordial relations with Iran and Israel, but is also careful to strike a delicate balance in its ties with Washington.

New Delhi has navigated the energy crisis sparked by the US-Iran war in part by turning to Russia for fuel despite Western sanctions as the war against Ukraine drags on.

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