Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin likely to attend India-hosted BRICS Summit amid West Asia tensions

Chinese President Xi Jinping, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to attend the BRICS Summit in New Delhi on September 12-13, setting the stage for a series of high-level bilateral meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to people familiar with the preparations.

If Xi’s visit goes ahead, it will mark his first trip to India since the Mamallapuram informal summit with Modi in October 2019, held months before India-China ties deteriorated following the military standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.

Since then, Modi and Xi have met on the sidelines of international summits, including in Kazan in October 2024 after the two countries reached an understanding to ease the border standoff, and again at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Tianjin last August.

West Asia tensions likely to dominate summit

The summit, themed “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability,” is expected to be overshadowed by differences between Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) over the ongoing West Asia conflict.

Iran and the UAE, both admitted into BRICS during its 2024 expansion, have reportedly differed over language related to the Palestine issue and the two-state solution, with most other BRICS members resisting any dilution of the bloc’s traditional position.

Pezeshkian’s visit is expected to provide an opportunity to brief the Indian leadership on the evolving regional crisis and discuss ways to strengthen bilateral ties.

India-Iran ties and regional diplomacy

India’s relations with Iran have been affected since US sanctions halted Indian imports of Iranian oil in 2019 and slowed New Delhi’s involvement in developing the strategic Chabahar Port.

Officials believe the summit will also require India to play a balancing role between Tehran and Abu Dhabi, whose differences have widened amid the ongoing conflict in West Asia.

Disagreements over the regional crisis have already prevented consensus at several BRICS meetings this year, including the foreign ministers’ meeting in May, where members failed to adopt a joint outcome document.

India has also invited leaders from several non-BRICS nations to the summit. Among them is Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, who has been invited in his capacity as the current chair of the BIMSTEC grouping, the sources said.