Pezeshkian lands in Delhi as BRICS tries to hold Iran and the Gulf in one room

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian arrived at Palam Air Base on 11 September for the 18th BRICS summit, his first trip to India as head of state. India's minister of ports, shipping and waterways, Shantanu Thakur, received him. A bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi was set for the same day.

The visit comes eight years after the last Iranian president came to India and ten days after Pezeshkian and Modi spoke on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation gathering in Bishkek. That Bishkek meeting was their first face-to-face contact since the United States and Israel opened the war against Iran in February.

Pezeshkian told Iranian media before departure that BRICS was built to counter unilateralism and that the Delhi meetings would cover economic, financial, industrial and trade questions. He listed the summit slogans as independence, solidarity, sustainability, resistance and innovation. He put the membership at 21: 11 full members and 10 partners under the BRICS Plus label.

The declaration problem

India holds the chair. China takes it next. The grouping has not agreed a common sentence on the Iran war. Foreign ministers failed to issue a joint statement when they met in New Delhi in May. Shilan Shah at Capital Economics called the war a stern test of cohesion.

The seating plan makes the test visible. Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, crown prince of Abu Dhabi, will represent the United Arab Emirates. Iran wants BRICS to condemn strikes on its territory. The UAE wants language on Iranian attacks on Gulf countries. Saudi Arabia, also in the room, has seen Houthi attacks on its facilities rise in the same week that Mocha fell on the Red Sea.

Russia's Vladimir Putin landed in Delhi earlier on Friday. Xi Jinping is due on 12-13 September, his first visit to India since 2019. South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa is also attending. The expanded club now includes states that sell oil, states that buy it, and states that have taken opposite sides in the same war.

What India wants from the bilateral

Modi and Pezeshkian will talk trade and energy under sanctions and wartime shipping risk. India was a large buyer of Iranian crude before the first round of U.S. restrictions a decade ago and again, in smaller volumes, during later waivers. The current war and new U.S. measures have tightened that channel further. Chabahar port, the overland route through Iran toward Central Asia, remains an Indian interest that does not depend on crude barrels.

Pezeshkian is also due to meet Malaysia's prime minister and Ramaphosa. He will speak in the leaders' session, at the BRICS economic forum, and in a closed discussion on global governance.

Bangladesh will not send its prime minister. Dhaka said Tarique Rahman was not invited to the summit and that any invitation ran through BIMSTEC instead. That absence is a sideshow. The main strain is the Iran file.

A summit in a city on holiday

Delhi schools are closed on 11 September for summit security. Officials have spoken of about 30,000 personnel and anti-drone systems. Chanakyapuri hotels are under tighter watch. The working sessions open on 12 September at Bharat Mandapam.

India's public line is that BRICS should build resilience in food, energy, health, disaster response and supply chains. That agenda can be written without naming Hormuz or Mocha. A consensus declaration cannot. If the leaders leave Delhi without an agreed paragraph on the war, the failure will be the story that follows them home, whatever else the communique says about innovation and sustainability.