Vladimir Putin landed in New Delhi this week for the 18th BRICS Summit at Bharat Mandapam, and this trip carries more weight than a typical diplomatic stop. It’s the first time since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine that Putin has both traveled abroad and attended a BRICS summit in person, a distinction that matters given his history with the bloc. In 2023, an ICC arrest warrant kept him away from the Johannesburg summit entirely, forcing him to appear only by video link. In 2024, he hosted the gathering himself in Kazan, on Russian soil. Delhi is different: it’s foreign territory, and he showed up anyway.
A Red-Carpet Welcome From an Old Ally
India didn’t hold back on the warmth. Officials at the Ministry of External Affairs publicly praised the “multifaceted and longstanding” relationship between the two countries as Putin’s convoy rolled through a freshly decorated capital. That’s a deliberate signal, New Delhi has spent years balancing ties with Washington, the Gulf states, and Moscow simultaneously, and hosting Putin this visibly shows it isn’t backing off that strategy under Western pressure.
Modi and Putin Talk Trade, Energy, and Defense
Before the summit sessions even started, Putin sat down with Prime Minister Narendra Modi for their second meeting in under two weeks, their previous one having taken place in Bishkek. According to Modi, the discussion covered deepening trade ties under the two countries’ Programme for Economic Cooperation through 2030, along with cooperation in infrastructure, energy, technology, defense, and culture. India and Russia are aiming to push bilateral trade to $100 billion by 2030, up from roughly $70 billion in 2024–25. On the industrial side, Hindustan Aeronautics signed an agreement with Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation to build SJ-100 commuter jets in India, and a separate Indian firm struck a preliminary deal for six turboprop aircraft, part of a broader push to localize manufacturing rather than simply import Russian hardware.
Putin’s Pitch: BRICS as an Economic Counterweight
Speaking at the BRICS Business Forum, Putin argued that the bloc’s members now account for more than 40% of global economic output, and framed BRICS as a platform for growth that doesn’t depend on rules set in the West. He was careful, though, to soften the confrontational edge: “BRICS’ work is not directed against anyone,” he told the forum, adding that its goal is simply the shared prosperity of member nations. On the currency question, the Kremlin has been notably cautious, spokesperson Dmitry Peskov pushed back on the idea that Russia is chasing full de-dollarization, instead pointing out that roughly 90% of transactions between Russia and other BRICS countries already happen in national currencies, without needing to eliminate the dollar altogether.
The Line Putin Won’t Let Europe Cross
Away from the economic agenda, Putin used his time in Delhi to draw a hard line on Ukraine. Speaking to reporters, he warned that any European decision to send troops into Ukraine would amount to direct war with Russia, while insisting Moscow has no intention of threatening Europe and never has. It’s a warning he’s repeated in various forms since the war began from calling potential NATO deployments “legitimate targets” last year to invoking the risk of nuclear escalation in 2024 but repeating it from the BRICS stage, in front of leaders like Xi Jinping and Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian, adds diplomatic weight the message wouldn’t carry from Moscow alone.
Why the Visit Matters Beyond the Headlines
Put together, the Delhi trip lets Putin do two things simultaneously: lock in tangible economic wins with a major partner, and use a global stage to push back against the West without needing a solo press conference to do it. For India, hosting him this openly is a real-time test of whether its non-aligned balancing act still holds up in 2026. And for BRICS as a bloc, the summit is another marker in its slow shift from talking shop to genuine alternative not necessarily to Western currency, but increasingly to Western-led diplomacy itself.
