BRICS summit opens in New Delhi with Xi, Putin and other leaders

The BRICS summit, the non-Western grouping of emerging economies led by China and Russia, opened Saturday (local time) in New Delhi for a three-day gathering.

The 18th edition of the summit was held at the Bharat Mandapam International Convention Centre in host country India. The meeting drew prominent leaders in person — including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, whose country is at war with the United States — marking the bloc's 20th anniversary with a show of collective weight.

Held under the theme "Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability," the summit is focusing on economic cooperation in trade, energy and food security, as well as major international issues including the war between the United States and Iran, now in its seventh month.

Diplomats are watching closely to see what level of joint statement the bloc will issue on the Middle East crisis, given that member states with conflicting interests — including Iran and the UAE — are all at the table. According to Reuters and other media, members have agreed on draft language condemning unilateral acts of war without naming any specific country.

Meanwhile, Xi, visiting India for the first time in seven years since 2019, held bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to continue normalizing ties strained by a border dispute. Putin, who met Modi on Friday, then held a series of bilateral meetings with the leaders of the UAE and Ethiopia, using the occasion to raise his voice against a Western-dominated international order.