Russian President Vladimir Putin officially began his three-day working visit to India after landing at the Palam air base near the capital New Delhi in the early hours of Friday (September 11). The visit is aimed at participating in the 18th BRICS summit, which is being held under the chairmanship of India in 2026, official Kremlin sources reported (news agency: kremlin.ru).
The Russian head of state's program began immediately with a series of meetings at the highest level. According to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (mea.gov.in), Putin will hold key bilateral talks with the host of the event - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The two leaders will discuss expanding the strategic partnership, energy cooperation, trade and defense equipment supplies, including progress on joint projects. Later in the day, they will visit the international industrial exhibition “Innoprom. India“ and Putin is expected to make a statement to the BRICS Business Forum.
The global context of this year's forum is complicated by ongoing geopolitical conflicts, international analysts from media outlets such as Reuters (reuters.com) and the Guardian (theguardian.com) note. The central topic of the talks of the expanded and now 11-member BRICS format will be the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, as well as the search for alternative financial mechanisms for trade outside of Western sanctions.
Putin's program for Friday and Saturday also includes a series of intensive bilateral talks with the leaders of South Africa (Cyril Ramaphosa), Egypt (Abdel Fattah al-Sisi), Malaysia (Anwar Ibrahim), as well as with the president of the New Development Bank Dilma Rousseff, Interfax (interfax.ru) reports. The main session of the BRICS leaders and the adoption of the final joint declaration will take place on Saturday, September 12, and the visit will end on September 13 with an expanded meeting in the “BRICS-plus“ format.