India welcomes world leaders for BRICS summit

AFP | New Delhi

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The presidents of Russia and Iran were in India for talks yesterday ahead of a BRICS summit that will bring together leaders including China's Xi Jinping, with wars, trade and energy expected to dominate the agenda.

"The world today is going through a period of unprecedented complexity", Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said, speaking in New Delhi at a forum, ahead of the main summit on Saturday.

Wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, as well as global trade turbulence and oil, are expected to feature prominently at the two-day annual summit.

BRICS was created in 2009 as a forum for major emerging economies seeking greater influence in institutions dominated by Western powers.

"BRICS was established to counter unilateralism", said Pezeshkian, who also met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Iranian president said that pressure on his country "has reached a critical and dangerous stage in recent months following the military aggression by the United States and Israel".

When the summit begins Saturday, Xi's attendance will be key. Set to arrive on Saturday, it will be his first visit to India since 2019.

"China stands ready to work with India... by strengthening communication, enhancing cooperation, and properly handling differences," Beijing's foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said yesterday.

Modi embraced President Vladimir Putin yesterday before talks. Putin, who last visited India in December 2025, is one of New Delhi's most important strategic partners.

"One should engage in debate and friendship only with the virtuous, and nothing whatsoever with the unvirtuous," Modi wrote yesterday, in a social media message in Sanskrit to welcome leaders to the 11-nation summit.

Posters of a beaming Modi line streets across New Delhi, with heavy deployments of security forces across the capital and widespread traffic restrictions.

As well as Iran, BRICS includes Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

All three have been admitted to the group in recent years, joining founding member states that include India, China and Russia.