New Delhi : India is set to be the stage for a powerful meeting of world leaders in September as it hosts the Brics Summit. Putin’s participation in the two-day Brics summit has been confirmed by the Russian Embassy in South Africa. Russian officials also confirmed that, according to a report in Russia’s news agency Tass.
Xi’s visit, if that materialises, will be the first to India since October 2019 when he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Mamallapuram in Tamil Nadu. The Galwan Valley clashes in June 2020 and the tense Tawang border standoff in December 2022 had a chilling effect on Sino-Indian ties. The timing of the Brics summit and the presence of the leaders from Russia and China — the two prominent nations in the bloc — expected to attend is particularly significant amid visible internal divisions within the bloc over key geopolitical issues, especially the Iran war.
The cracks became evident after Brics talks between the deputy foreign ministers and special envoys of the 11-member bloc were held on April 24 in New Delhi. The talks failed to produce a joint statement, with disagreements emerging over the US-Iran war, tensions between Iran and the UAE, and the reported wording changes proposed by India on the Israel-Palestine issue.
New Delhi will be hosting the 18th Brics Summit under the theme “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability”. Brics was formed with Brazil, Russia, India, and China coming together. The first Brics summit was held in Russia in 2009. South Africa joined in 2010, turning Bric into Brics. In recent years, the bloc expanded further with the inclusion of Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia, significantly increasing its geopolitical and economic footprint.
The Brics has been viewed as a threat to the Western dominance. It has also attracted criticism from US President Donald Trump. He described it as “anti-American” bloc, which he said was an “attack on the dollar”. In July 2025, following the summit in Rio de Janeiro, Trump said that any country aligning with Brics policies would face an additional 10% tariff on imports into the US.
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