India balances Moscow and Tehran as war in West Asia and Ukraine tests the 11-nation bloc it chairs; Xi Jinping arrives Saturday
BuzzBytes News Desk
NEW DELHI, September 11: Prime Minister Narendra Modi held back-to-back talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Friday, hours after the three leaders shared the stage at the BRICS Business Forum at Bharat Mandapam, a day before India opens the 18th BRICS Leaders’ Summit.
At the forum, Modi stood hand in hand with Pezeshkian on one side and Putin and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on the other. The picture summed up New Delhi’s balancing act: close ties with Moscow and Tehran, both under heavy Western pressure, even as India pursues major trade and investment agreements with the United States and Europe.
The two-day summit, which India hosts as this year’s BRICS chair, runs on September 12 and 13. Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives on Saturday for his first visit to India since 2019 and is scheduled to hold talks with Modi that evening. The grouping has expanded to 11 member countries that together account for about half the world’s population.
Modi and Putin: trade, nuclear energy, defence
Putin landed at Palam Air Force Station in the early hours of Friday for a three-day visit and was received by Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh. It is his first in-person appearance at a BRICS summit outside Russia since the war in Ukraine began in February 2022, and his second meeting with Modi in two weeks, after the two met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Bishkek on August 31.
The talks at Bharat Mandapam centred on the target of taking bilateral trade to USD 100 billion by 2030, with civil nuclear energy, defence, energy security, fertilisers, critical minerals, manufacturing, railways, steel, space and skill mobility on the table. Cross-border payment mechanisms and strategic trade resilience were also on the agenda.
According to the Ministry of External Affairs, Modi reiterated that dialogue and diplomacy were the only way forward between Russia and Ukraine and said India stood ready to assist in peace efforts. Putin invited Modi to Russia for the 24th India-Russia Annual Summit, and the Prime Minister accepted. Dates will be fixed through diplomatic channels. Modi also presented Putin with a Russian translation of the Thirukkural, the Tamil classic.
Modi and Pezeshkian: Hormuz and the safety of seafarers
Pezeshkian arrived in New Delhi on Friday, with the region still reeling from the US-Iran war and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz disrupted. In his meeting with the Iranian President, Modi reiterated India’s position that all issues must be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy, and called for lasting peace in West Asia, freedom of navigation and commerce, and the safety of seafarers.
Modi thanked Pezeshkian for Iran’s high-level participation in the summit despite what the MEA called challenging circumstances. Pezeshkian, for his part, pointed to supply chain disruptions and the growing use of economic tools to apply political pressure.
For India, the stakes are practical. The country depends heavily on imported energy, thousands of Indians work across the Gulf, and Iran’s Chabahar port remains New Delhi’s gateway to Afghanistan and Central Asia. Modi also met UN Secretary-General António Guterres during the day.
The forum: three leaders, three priorities
Modi described Friday’s gathering as the largest business forum in the bloc’s 20-year history, noting that BRICS now represents half the world’s population, 40 per cent of global GDP and a quarter of world trade. He asked the BRICS Business Council to prepare a report identifying the bloc’s ten biggest trade barriers and ways to remove them.
“As trade barriers increase the world over, India is building economic bridges,” Modi said, pointing to UPI, startups and artificial intelligence as areas where India could serve as a global solutions hub.
Putin told the forum that the world economy was going through deep structural shifts, with BRICS nations now driving more than half of global growth against 18 per cent for the G7. He called for stronger business-to-business links among member states. Pezeshkian’s address focused on rebuilding an Iranian economy squeezed by sanctions and conflict.
Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal put the bloc’s combined exports at about USD 6 trillion, or 24 per cent of the world total, while External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar called for deeper economic ties and more resilient supply chains among members.
A bloc under strain
The summit opens with BRICS members divided over the US-Iran war, and India working to build consensus among countries that sit on opposite sides of the conflict. The war in Ukraine and rising tensions between Washington and Beijing add to the pressure on the grouping’s unity. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was among the leaders who arrived on Friday.
Saturday’s programme includes a closed-door session on inclusive global governance and multilateralism, the official family photograph and a gala dinner hosted by Modi. Sunday’s open session, themed on resilience, innovation, cooperation and sustainability, brings in partner and outreach countries.
Delhi Police have deployed around 15,000 personnel and 200 companies of paramilitary forces, backed by more than 500 CCTV cameras. Non-scheduled flights over the capital are barred from 7 am to 11 pm until September 13, and the MEA expects between 1,200 and 1,300 journalists at the International Media Centre inside Bharat Mandapam.
