New Delhi: Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend BRICS summit scheduled to be held in India on September 12-13, 2026, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed on Tuesday.
This will be his second visit to India in less than a year, following his December 2025 trip to India for the 23rd India-Russia annual summit. The visit also marked the 25th anniversary of the Declaration on Strategic Partnership between the two countries.
India is set to host the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi under its presidency of the bloc. The high-level conference will be hosted by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and is expected to witness the participation of foreign ministers and senior representatives from BRICS member countries and partner nations.
India and Russia strong relations
India’s relationship with Russia has strong roots, underlined by a robust defense partnership over the decades. Even though India’s purchase of weapons from Russia has come down over the last few years, Moscow is still India’s top defense supplier.
The Russian S-400 missile defense system was a key player for India in Operation Sindoor against Pakistan.
What is BRICS?
BRICS is an acronym coined in 2001 by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill to group together Brazil, Russia, India, and China, which were identified as the world’s fastest growing emerging economies poised to collectively dominate global markets by 2050.
What began as an investment and economic concept evolved into a formal geopolitical alliance when the nations held their first official summit in 2009 to cooperate on international trade and finance.
The group transitioned from BRIC to BRICS in 2010 when South Africa was formally inducted, creating a powerful bloc of developing nations that acts as a strategic counterweight to traditional Western dominated economic frameworks like the G7. Now, BRICS consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, United Arab Emirates and Indonesia.
(Curated by: Faiza Nazar)