World Desk: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin embraced on Friday before talks on trade, energy and defence, a day ahead of the 11-member BRICS summit.
Moscow is one of New Delhi’s most important strategic partners and military suppliers, with the two leaders shown by Indian broadcasters grinning and patting each other on the back at the New Delhi conference centre where Saturday’s summit will be held.
India has navigated the energy crisis caused by the US-Iran war in part by turning to Russia, despite Moscow’s war in Ukraine and pressure from Washington and other Western capitals.
Putin last visited India in December 2025, but the two leaders met earlier this month at a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kyrgyzstan.
Modi, speaking in Bishkek, hard urged Putin to move from an “endless war towards the end of war”.
Indian refiners nearly doubled crude imports from Russia in March, in the weeks after the Middle East war erupted, helped by temporary US waivers.
Shipments then rose sharply to 2.71 million barrels per day in June and a record 2.81 million in July, according to trade intelligence firm Kpler.
Imports fell to 2.07 million barrels per day in August, but remained significant, Kpler data showed.
Bilateral goods trade reached $59.9 billion in 2025-26, with India exporting $4.49 billion and importing $55.37 billion, according to Indian government data.
Narendra Modi will host them. Xi Jinping is returning to India after seven years. Vladimir Putin is already in Delhi and has begun talks with Modi.
When the three leaders come together at this weekend’s BRICS Summit, the photograph alone will carry considerable geopolitical weight.
But Modi, Xi and Putin are not coming to the table with the same agenda.
Each has something different to gain.
For Modi, the summit offers another opportunity to demonstrate India’s pursuit of strategic autonomy.
New Delhi works with the United States, Japan and Australia through the Quad. It maintains a longstanding strategic partnership with Russia. And after years of border tensions, it is cautiously rebuilding relations with China.
India’s involvement in BRICS reflects a broader policy of “multi-alignment” underpinned by strategic autonomy, according to an analysis in The Indian Express.
As host, New Delhi wants the grouping to amplify the voice of the