BRICS meets in Delhi with Putin and Xi present and the bloc under strain

Russian President Vladimir Putin landed in India for the BRICS summit, which is shadowed by the wars in Iran and Ukraine^1,6. Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian are due to hold talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Chinese President Xi Jinping is also expected to hold talks^1,6.

The summit is taking place in Delhi this weekend, and unlike last year both Putin and Xi are attending⁷. India’s stated aim is to steer the bloc away from an anti-Western turn⁷, and the talks point to an attempt to balance ties with global powers⁵.

The gathering is under visible strain. Leaders are meeting as wars and rivalries stretch the expanded bloc⁴, and the shadow of President Trump looms over the proceedings².

Why it matters to investors

The bloc’s cohesion determines whether its currency and payments ambitions amount to anything. On the evidence of this summit, the members are competing as much as coordinating: China and India are vying for influence within the grouping itself³.

That rivalry has a documented history. India has excluded China from its Voice of the Global South summits, an annual forum that draws more than 100 developing countries³, while the Delhi summit offers India an opportunity to strengthen its claim to leadership of the global south².

Analysts are explicit about the limits. The Global South is not a homogeneous entity, said Praveen Donthi, senior analyst with the International Crisis Group⁴. China, for its part, may be wary of the arrangement². Reporting on the gathering describes the expanded bloc as strained by wars and rivalries rather than consolidated by them⁴, which complicates any reading of BRICS as a settled counterweight to Western institutions.

What to watch

The first signal is the communique’s language on Western institutions, given India’s stated intention to avoid an anti-Western framing⁷. A bloc that includes Russia and Iran while its host resists confrontation with Washington has a drafting problem as much as a policy one^1,7.

The second is the bilateral track. Putin’s talks with Modi and Pezeshkian, and Xi’s separate meetings, will say more about alignment than the plenary sessions^1,6.

The third is whether the expansion that has strained the bloc continues⁴. Each addition widens the range of interests that a common position has to accommodate, and the India-China contest for influence is the constraint that binds^2,3.