BRICS meets in Delhi with Putin and Xi present and the bloc under strain
India is hosting a BRICS summit attended by both Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, while trying to steer the expanded bloc away from an explicitly anti-Western turn.
Assembled by Claude from 7 sources at 7 outlets · Friday, September 11, 2026, Morning edition, 10:22 AM EDT · no human byline
What happened
Russian President Vladimir Putin landed in India for the BRICS summit, which is shadowed by the wars in Iran and Ukraine aljazeera.comfrance24.com. 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 aljazeera.comfrance24.com.
The summit is taking place in Delhi this weekend, and unlike last year both Putin and Xi are attending dw.com. India's stated aim is to steer the bloc away from an anti-Western turn dw.com, and the talks point to an attempt to balance ties with global powers semafor.com.
The gathering is under visible strain. Leaders are meeting as wars and rivalries stretch the expanded bloc abcnews.com, and the shadow of President Trump looms over the proceedings bbc.com.
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 itself nytimes.com.
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 countries nytimes.com, while the Delhi summit offers India an opportunity to strengthen its claim to leadership of the global south bbc.com.
Analysts are explicit about the limits. The Global South is not a homogeneous entity, said Praveen Donthi, senior analyst with the International Crisis Group abcnews.com. China, for its part, may be wary of the arrangement bbc.com. Reporting on the gathering describes the expanded bloc as strained by wars and rivalries rather than consolidated by them abcnews.com, 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 framing dw.com. A bloc that includes Russia and Iran while its host resists confrontation with Washington has a drafting problem as much as a policy one aljazeera.comdw.com.
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 aljazeera.comfrance24.com.
The third is whether the expansion that has strained the bloc continues abcnews.com. 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 nytimes.combbc.com.
Sources
- aljazeera.com: Putin lands in India for BRICs summit, shadowed by Iran and Ukraine wars - Al Jazeera (2026-09-11)
- bbc.com: Trump shadow looms large over Brics as Modi hosts Putin and Xi in Delhi - BBC (2026-09-11)
- nytimes.com: At BRICS Summit, China and India Vie for Influence - The New York Times (2026-09-11)
- abcnews.com: BRICS leaders gather in New Delhi as wars and rivalries strain the expanded bloc (2026-09-11)
- semafor.com: BRICS leaders gather in India amid a reordering of global alliances (2026-09-11)
- france24.com: Putin and Xi in India for BRICS summit as Ukraine, Middle East wars loom - France 24 (2026-09-11)
- dw.com: India looks to steer BRICS away from anti-Western turn (2026-09-11)