BRICS opens in Delhi as Xi arrives and Modi sets a $100 billion Russia trade target

The 18th BRICS summit opens in New Delhi on Saturday at Bharat Mandapam, with Chinese President Xi Jinping due in the capital for his first visit to India since 2019 and Russian President Vladimir Putin already in the city after talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday. The two-day meeting sits on top of an expanded 11-member bloc and a longer list of partner countries. The official theme for India's chairship is Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability.

Modi and Putin met for more than 45 minutes on Friday. The Ministry of External Affairs said both sides resolved to push annual bilateral trade to 100 billion dollars by 2030 from about 65 billion now, and to step up work on defence, critical minerals, civil nuclear energy and fertiliser. Modi raised the safety of Indian seafarers in the Black Sea. Putin invited him to Russia for the 24th annual summit; Modi accepted, with dates to be fixed later. Putin told reporters that BRICS was not against anyone and that Moscow was open to working with the whole world, while attacking Western economic restrictions on Russia.

This is Putin's first in-person BRICS summit outside Russia since the full-scale war in Ukraine began in February 2022. He arrived with a large delegation and walked the red carpet at the Business Forum on Friday with Modi, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. The image was meant to show that isolation has not kept him out of a room that now includes China, India, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates at once.

Xi's bilateral with Modi is set for 5.45 pm on Saturday at Bharat Mandapam, officials-only for photographs. Beijing said both countries should handle differences properly and look at ties from a strategic and long-term perspective. The last Xi visit was in 2019. High-level contact froze after the 2020 Galwan clashes. Flights, visas and some diplomatic traffic have resumed over the past year, but the border, the trade gap and competition in the Indo-Pacific have not been settled. The meeting is the most closely watched item on a Saturday list that also includes Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Friday's other bilateral was with Pezeshkian, their second meeting in less than two weeks. India is trying to keep channels open with Tehran while also hosting Gulf partners who are on the other side of the US-Iran war. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres saw Modi at 6.45 pm on Friday.

India is not expected to back a common BRICS currency. Reporting around the summit says New Delhi prefers links between national payment systems and central bank digital currencies so that cross-border settlement is faster and cheaper without a shared note. That position keeps India away from a project that Washington would treat as a direct challenge to the dollar, while still giving the bloc something to announce on payments.

About 30 member and partner countries are represented. Central and Delhi government offices were closed on Friday to clear roads and security. Police deployed tens of thousands of personnel and anti-drone systems. The formal closed session for members on Saturday afternoon is titled Inclusive Global Governance and Strengthening Multilateralism.

The gathering tests whether an enlarged BRICS can do more than occupy the same hall. Iran wants political cover while it fights the United States. Russia wants proof that it still has large-country partners. China wants the bloc to look like a pole. India wants to host all three without being forced to pick a camp. The Saturday evening meeting with Xi will show how much of that balancing act survives a photograph.

Markets will watch two other files that sit outside the communique. Crude has jumped as Houthis took the Yemeni Red Sea coast and Saudi Arabia shut its East-West pipeline. Indian benchmarks lost roughly 5 lakh crore rupees in market value on Friday as oil and bond yields rose together. A summit that talks about resilience will be judged, in part, by whether the members can keep energy and shipping lanes from dictating the next quarter.