India is hosting leaders of BRICS in New Delhi this weekend, bringing Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi together against a geopolitical backdrop far more complicated than the last time the trio shared a stage. Xi’s attendance marks his first trip to India since 2019, according to CNBC.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is also expected at the summit, which convenes a grouping of major emerging economies that has spent years pressing for greater influence in a global system long shaped by the U.S. and its Western allies. The meeting takes place as Washington and Israel are at war with Iran, the U.S. continues pushing Moscow toward a deal to end the war in Ukraine, and President Donald Trump’s trade policies have strained relationships with allies and rivals alike.
The central question hanging over the gathering: whether that pressure gives BRICS members more reason to cooperate on trade, energy and payments — even as deep internal divisions cap how far any of it can go.
Washington’s policies add a new variable
Trump’s approach is not what brought these countries to the table. India and Russia have maintained close ties for decades, and the India-China thaw began before the latest round of U.S. trade tensions. But tariffs, sanctions and other economic measures from Washington now factor into how each capital weighs its options.
For Xi, the trip represents another step in a cautious reset after deadly clashes along the two countries’ disputed Himalayan border in 2020. Modi and Xi have worked to stabilize relations, restoring flights, visas and high-level contacts. Still, frictions persist over the border, India’s large trade deficit with Beijing and their broader strategic rivalry across Asia.
Chietigj Bajpaee, senior research fellow for South Asia at Chatham House, wrote earlier this week that recent strains with the Trump administration have led New Delhi to reinvest in other relationships. He said the Modi-Xi meeting will likely “further advance the ongoing reset in bilateral relations and build confidence,” noting that an August meeting between China’s foreign minister and India’s national security advisor made notable progress on the long-running border dispute.
India has long practiced strategic autonomy — keeping ties with Russia and Iran, improving relations with China, and still deepening cooperation with Washington, including through its membership in the Quad alongside the U.S., Japan and Australia.
Different motivations, overlapping interests
Russia’s calculus differs. Western sanctions over Ukraine have made partners outside Europe and the U.S. more important, with China emerging as a critical economic partner and India a major buyer of Russian oil. For Putin, deeper economic ties with both provide a buffer against sanctions, while the summit offers a stage to show Russia still holds relationships with some of the world’s largest economies.
Trump has made tariffs central to his economic and foreign policy agenda, and Washington keeps deploying sanctions and other economic tools against Russia and Iran. In response, BRICS members have focused more on alternative channels for trade and payments, discussing increased trade in local currencies and new cross-border payment mechanisms. Bajpaee noted that India has steered the group away from a broad de-dollarization push, emphasizing national currencies and digital payments to lower the cost of cross-border trade instead.
Russia has increasingly traded outside the dollar system, though the Kremlin said this week that Moscow is not seeking outright “de-dollarisation.” Trump has previously called BRICS an “attack on the dollar” and threatened tariffs against members if they moved to undermine the U.S. currency. Members remain divided over how far to reduce dollar dependence, which still dominates global reserves and international transactions.
A ‘dysfunctional family’ with limited aims
BRICS has expanded well beyond Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa to include Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia — adding economic and geopolitical weight while making consensus harder to reach.
Sarang Shidore, director of the Global South program at the Quincy Institute, called BRICS a “dysfunctional family” in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Friday, pointing to security issues as the clearest source of friction. Iran and the UAE are both members despite sitting on opposing sides of the conflict in the Middle East.
Shidore described BRICS as a “pragmatic club for limited purposes,” with members focused mainly on development, trade and reforming global institutions rather than building an ideological bloc against the United States. Bajpaee made a similar point about India, arguing it wants BRICS to promote a non-Western worldview without becoming explicitly anti-Western, even as some members push the group in a more geopolitical direction.
India’s own desire for deeper U.S. ties illustrates the overlapping relationships at play. Other members, including the UAE, also maintain important ties with Washington while diversifying. The UAE recently pledged to invest $46 billion in Germany across a range of sectors.
Xi is due to travel to the United States later this month. Bajpaee noted that members still see value in BRICS despite their differing visions — a Modi-Xi meeting at the 2024 summit helped set the India-China reset in motion. As the three leaders meet again in New Delhi, the question is whether U.S. tariffs, sanctions and economic pressure will make this summit the catalyst for another shift.
Source: www.cnbc.com — https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/12/brics-summit-xi-putin-modi-trump.html
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