Vladimir Putin's arrival in New Delhi for the expanded BRICS summit marks a moment when the world's emerging economies, long aspiring to chart their own course beyond Western influence, find themselves instead at the center of the very fractures they sought to transcend. The gathering of eleven nations — now including Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE — carries the weight of two active wars and the quiet drama of a China-India thaw that is real enough to attempt but too fragile to trust. In the long arc of multipolarity's promise, this summit asks whether solidarity among the non-Western world i
Putin arrives in India for BRICS summit amid Middle East and Ukraine tensions
What had been celebrated as an achievement now looked like a constraint.
Mark
So Putin shows up in New Delhi while wars are still burning in Ukraine and the Middle East. Why does he go? What's the diplomatic calculus?
Mimi
BRICS is one of the few forums where Russia still sits at the table as a major power. It's a way to signal that isolation hasn't worked, that he's still central to global conversations about the future.
Luke
But here's the thing—the summit is already fractured. Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE are in the same room with completely different positions on the Middle East war. The foreign ministers couldn't even agree on a statement in May.
Mimi
Exactly. India is trying to hold this together, but it's nearly impossible. Modi has to balance relationships with Iran, Israel, and the US all at once.
Mark
And China's Xi is coming too—his first visit to India since 2019. That seems significant.
Luke
It is, but we should be careful about reading too much into it. Yes, they're restoring flights and visas. But the border is still contested, the trade deficit is still widening, and the mistrust is still there. This is cautious thawing, not reconciliation.
Mimi
India is caught between all of these powers. It's buying Russian energy to manage the Middle East crisis, but it's also telling Ukraine it wants the war to end. It's welcoming Xi while still wary of Chinese intentions.
Mark
So the summit itself might not produce much concrete agreement?
Luke
The May foreign ministers' meeting suggests no. When you have Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE in the same room with fundamentally opposed interests, joint statements become impossible. This summit will probably show the same fractures.
Mimi
But the meetings still matter. They're spaces where these leaders can take each other's measure, signal intentions, and sometimes find narrow areas of agreement on economic issues, even if geopolitics remains intractable.
Le Pouls
- Putin lands in New Delhi as BRICS, once a symbol of emerging-world ambition, is forced to confront the very conflicts — Ukraine and the Middle East — that have made global order so difficult to sustain.
- The bloc's expansion to include Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE was hailed as a triumph, but their irreconcilable positions on the US-Israel war have already caused foreign ministers to fail at producing a joint statement.
- India sits at the summit's most uncomfortable crossroads — maintaining ties with Iran, Israel, and Washington simultaneously while quietly deepening its energy dependence on Russia.
- Xi Jinping's first visit to India since 2019 carries the weight of a deadly border clash and years of frozen relations, with cautious diplomatic signals suggesting coexistence is being tested rather than restored.
- New Delhi itself is locked down — portraits, security cordons, and traffic restrictions transforming the capital into a stage for a summit whose outcome remains genuinely uncertain.
Vladimir Putin's arrival in New Delhi for the expanded BRICS summit marks a moment when the world's emerging economies, long aspiring to chart their own course beyond Western influence, find themselves instead at the center of the very fractures they sought to transcend. The gathering of eleven nations — now including Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE — carries the weight of two active wars and the quiet drama of a China-India thaw that is real enough to attempt but too fragile to trust. In the long arc of multipolarity's promise, this summit asks whether solidarity among the non-Western world is a destination or merely a direction.
Vladimir Putin arrived in New Delhi on Friday for a two-day BRICS summit that was meant to project the collective ambition of the world's major emerging economies — and instead found itself consumed by the wars those economies cannot agree on. The Russian president was joined by Iran's Masoud Pezeshkian, making his first visit to India in that role, and by China's Xi Jinping, whose presence alone carried diplomatic weight: his last trip to India had been in 2019, before a deadly Himalayan border clash sent relations into years of cold silence.
BRICS had grown since its founding in 2009, adding Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE to its original five members. What looked like expansion in practice became a liability. The three Gulf-linked members hold sharply opposing views on the US-Israel military campaign against Iran, and when foreign ministers gathered in New Delhi in May, they could not produce a joint statement. The summit would test whether the enlarged bloc could hold together at all.
India's position was characteristically delicate. It maintained working relationships with Iran, Israel, and Washington — and had deepened its reliance on Russian energy even as Moscow's war in Ukraine entered its fifth year. Indian Foreign Minister Jaishankar had visited Kyiv earlier in the month, where Zelenskyy offered diplomatic gratitude for India's stated peace commitments — a courtesy that obscured India's real reluctance to isolate Russia.
The tentative warming between China and India — restored flights, resumed high-level contacts — remained fragile. The border dispute was unresolved. China's trade surplus with India had grown. Xi's visit would be read carefully for signs of genuine recalibration or merely tactical proximity. For now, two nuclear-armed neighbors were testing whether coexistence was achievable, even as the deeper rivalries persisted beneath the surface.
Vladimir Putin touched down in New Delhi on Friday morning, stepping into a diplomatic arena already crackling with tension. The Russian president had arrived for an 11-member BRICS summit—a gathering of major emerging economies that was supposed to chart a course independent of Western influence. Instead, it would spend two days wrestling with the very conflicts that have fractured the global order: the war in Ukraine, now in its fifth year, and the escalating Middle East crisis that erupted in February when the United States and Israel launched military operations against Iran.
The summit's agenda was crowded with bilateral meetings. Putin would sit down with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. So would Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian, making his first visit to India in that role—the first Iranian presidential visit in eight years. China's Xi Jinping was also expected to meet Modi on the margins, a moment freighted with its own significance: Xi's last trip to India had been in 2019, before a deadly military clash along their disputed Himalayan border had sent relations into a deep freeze. The fact that he was coming at all suggested something had shifted, however tentatively, between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.
At Palam Air Force Station, India's Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh greeted Putin as he deplaned. Across New Delhi, the machinery of state hospitality was in full motion. Portraits of Modi smiled from street corners. Security forces fanned out through the capital. Traffic restrictions choked the central districts. Delhi police issued appeals for patience and cooperation from residents bracing for the disruption.
BRICS itself had transformed since its founding in 2009 as a club for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—five major emerging economies seeking to dilute Western dominance over global institutions. The bloc had expanded, bringing in Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. On paper, this looked like success. In practice, it had become a liability. Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE held sharply opposing views on the US-Israel war. Harsh V. Pant, an analyst at India's Observer Research Foundation, put it plainly to international news agencies: the Gulf conflict would be the central fault line of this summit. What had been celebrated as an achievement—BRICS expansion—now looked like a constraint. The foreign ministers had already failed to produce a joint statement when they gathered in New Delhi in May. This summit would test whether the expanded group could hold together at all.
India occupied an uncomfortable middle ground. It maintained cordial ties with both Iran and Israel while being careful not to alienate Washington. The country had managed the energy crisis triggered by the Middle East war partly by deepening its reliance on Russia, one of its most important strategic partners and, increasingly, its most controversial fuel supplier as Moscow's invasion of Ukraine ground on. Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar had visited Kyiv earlier in the month, where President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed gratitude for India's stated commitment to ending the war—a diplomatic courtesy that masked India's actual reluctance to isolate Russia.
The warming between China and India, if it could be called that, was fragile. Flights and visas had been gradually restored. High-level contacts had resumed. Yet the mistrust ran deep. The border remained contested. China's trade surplus with India had widened. Strategic rivalry persisted. Xi's visit would be scrutinized for signs of genuine reconciliation or merely tactical positioning. For now, the two countries were testing whether coexistence was possible again, even as they remained fundamentally at odds.
Citations marquantes
The Gulf conflict is going to be the central fault line this time during the BRICS summit.— Harsh V. Pant, Observer Research Foundation
What was seen until last year as an achievement—the expansion of BRICS—today looks like a big constraint on BRICS.— Harsh V. Pant, Observer Research Foundation
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