Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in the Indian capital ahead of an 11-member BRICS summit set to be dominated by wars in the Middle East and Europe, as well as economic challenges.
Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian were due to hold talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while Chinese President Xi Jinping was also expected to meet him on the sidelines of the two-day meeting beginning on Friday, Indian diplomatic sources said.
Putin arrived at Palam Air Force Station in New Delhi, where he was greeted by India's Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh, according to footage broadcast by Russia's RIA Novosti news agency.
For China's Xi, it will be his first visit to India since 2019 and marks the biggest step yet in a cautious thaw between the rival neighbours, six years after a deadly military clash along their disputed Himalayan border in India-administered Kashmir.
Ties between the nuclear-armed Asian giants have been warming again recently, with flights, visas and high-level contacts gradually being restored.
'Fault line'
Posters of a beaming Modi line streets across New Delhi to welcome leaders, with heavy deployments of security forces across the capital and widespread traffic restrictions in central districts. Delhi police have urged people to be patient and cooperative.
BRICS was created in 2009 as a forum for major emerging economies seeking greater influence in institutions dominated by Western powers.
It has since expanded and now includes Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — three countries with sharply differing positions on the war launched by the United States and Israel in February.
It will be Pezeshkian's first visit to India as Iranian president, and will put the Middle East conflict firmly on the agenda.
"The war in Iran will provide a stern test of the (expanded) 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.
India has navigated the energy crisis caused by the Iran war in part by turning to Russia, one of its most important strategic partners and its most controversial fuel supplier in recent years, as the war against Ukraine drags on.
Putin last visited India in December 2025, but he also met Modi in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, this month.
