Putin, Xi, and Pezeshkian Gather in New Delhi for 18th BRICS Summit

Leader arrivals in the Indian capital

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived at Palam Air Force Station in New Delhi on Friday, 11 September 2026, for a three-day visit to attend the 18th BRICS summit. India's Minister of State for External Affairs, Kirti Vardhan Singh, received Putin on the tarmac. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is hosting the two-day leaders meeting on 12 and 13 September, making this India's fourth time hosting the gathering following summits in 2012, 2016, and 2021. Chinese President Xi Jinping is attending the summit, representing his first visit to India since 2019 following years of border friction along the disputed Himalayan frontier. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is also travelling to New Delhi for his first official visit to India as head of state, while Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva skipped the meeting to focus on his October re-election campaign, sending Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira in his place.

Geopolitical wars and regional divides

The agenda in New Delhi is shaped by ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, particularly following the military strikes launched against Iran by the United States and Israel in late February. Pezeshkian previously addressed both Xi and Putin at a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting in Kyrgyzstan, where he called on Washington to return to diplomatic negotiations. Because India is not a signatory to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Putin faces no threat of arrest under the court's active warrant during his stay in Delhi. The expanded membership of BRICS, which now includes Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, faces divergent national policies regarding regional security. Harsh V Pant of the Observer Research Foundation described the diplomatic challenge facing the expanded group.

The Gulf conflict is going to be the central fault line this time during the Brics summit. What was seen until last year as an achievement - the expansion of Brics - today looks like a big constraint on Brics.

Shilan Shah of Capital Economics similarly observed the strain on the bloc's decision-making.

The war in Iran will provide a stern test of the [expanded] group's cohesion.

Economic integration and payment systems

Member states are focusing on economic, technological, and financial cooperation, including discussions on launching BRICS Pay, an independent payment network designed to function without using the US dollar. Together with ten partner nations, the expanded BRICS bloc accounts for nearly half of the world's population and approximately 40% of global economic output on a purchasing power parity basis. Indian officials have stated that the payment network is not intended to drive de-dollarisation, responding to previous warnings from Donald Trump concerning punitive trade tariffs. Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira also rejected assertions that the organisation operates with an anti-Western agenda.

Institutional limits and internal disputes

BRICS functions as an informal grouping without a formal founding treaty, a central budget, or a permanent secretariat, relying instead on a rotating annual chairmanship. Internal disagreements have repeatedly complicated collective decision-making, as demonstrated when a meeting of BRICS foreign ministers held in New Delhi on 14 and 15 May 2026 ended without a joint declaration. Tensions persist among several members, including the ongoing dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia over the Nile dam project, conflicting approaches by Saudi Arabia and the UAE toward Israel, and the defense pact recently concluded between Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Turkey.