Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to hold bilateral talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in New Delhi on Friday, hours before Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian arrives for his own meeting with the Indian leader, as a packed schedule of diplomacy gets under way ahead of the formal opening of the 18th BRICS Leaders’ Summit this weekend.
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Putin landed in New Delhi early Friday for a three-day visit, marking his first overseas participation in a BRICS summit since Russia’s war in Ukraine began in February 2022. He was received at the airport by India’s Minister of State for External Affairs, Kirti Vardhan Singh.
The day’s proceedings also opened with the BRICS Business Forum at Bharat Mandapam, where External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar called for stronger economic ties and more resilient supply chains among member nations, setting the tone for a day built around both economic groundwork and high-level bilateral diplomacy.
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The Modi-Putin bilateral is scheduled for 3:30pm at Bharat Mandapam, according to India’s official summit schedule. Putin is also due to address the plenary session of the BRICS Business Forum earlier in the day before the two leaders hold their talks, and the pair are expected to make a joint visit to the INNOPROM industrial exhibition afterwards.
The meeting follows the two leaders’ most recent encounter on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Bishkek on August 31.
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Officials say the talks are expected to focus on trade, energy, defence and investment, with strategic trade resilience, cross-border payment mechanisms and energy security also high on the agenda. Russia remains one of India’s most significant strategic partners despite Moscow’s continued isolation from much of the West over the Ukraine war, with the two countries maintaining longstanding cooperation across defence and energy in particular.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said ahead of the visit that financial exchanges between the two countries had remained robust, pointing to the resilience of bilateral payment arrangements even amid broader Western sanctions on Russia.
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Modi is scheduled to meet Pezeshkian at 6:15 pm on Friday, marking the Iranian president’s first visit to India since taking office. The meeting comes as the wider summit unfolds against the backdrop of the ongoing conflict in West Asia involving the United States and Iran, placing Tehran’s delegation under particular scrutiny during this year’s gathering.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto is also among the leaders Modi is scheduled to meet on Friday, according to summit organisers.
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In total, Modi is set to hold 15 separate bilateral meetings with leaders of BRICS member and partner countries across the summit period, including sit-downs with Putin, Pezeshkian, Chinese President Xi Jinping, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, among others. Indian officials have described the pace of engagements as reflecting the country’s effort to balance an independent foreign policy that maintains working relationships with Russia, the United States, Europe and other major powers simultaneously.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah welcomed the arriving leaders in a post on social media, writing that India warmly welcomes the global leaders to deliberate and take action to strengthen cooperation across the bloc.
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The formal leaders’ summit opens on Saturday at 2:35 pm with a closed-door session on inclusive global governance and strengthening multilateralism, followed by the Bharat Innovates Exhibition, an official group photograph and a tree-planting ceremony, before a gala dinner hosted by Modi in the evening. On Sunday, leaders are due to arrive from 9:55 am, followed by a further group photograph and the summit’s opening session shortly after 10:50 am.
The two-day gathering is unfolding under extremely tight security across the capital, with airspace restrictions and heavy police deployments in place as New Delhi hosts one of its largest diplomatic gatherings since the 2023 G20 summit.
