NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is hosting the leaders of Russia, China and Iran in New Delhi this weekend for the BRICS summit, as the annual leaders’ forum takes place against the backdrop of the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian are meeting Modi on Friday, while Chinese President Xi Jinping and Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan are scheduled to arrive in the Indian capital on Saturday. 

India is this year’s chair and a founding member of the BRICS grouping, which held its first summit in 2009 as a forum for major emerging economies seeking greater influence in institutions dominated by Western powers.

Initially comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the group has expanded with the accession of Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia, the UAE and Indonesia in recent years. The bloc collectively represents nearly half of the world’s population, around 40 percent of global gross domestic product and 26 percent of international trade. 

“There is full confidence that the conference will feature positive and meaningful discussions on various issues, with aspirations for global welfare,” Modi said on X. 

The Delhi meeting takes place six months into the US-Israeli war on Iran and about four-and-a-half years into Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, both of which have caused major shifts in global trade and geopolitics. 

It also marks Xi’s first visit to India since 2019 and after ties deteriorated following deadly border clashes in 2020. Modi is scheduled to meet the Chinese president on the sidelines of the summit, amid thawing relations between New Delhi and Beijing. 

As Iran and the US traded waves of attacks on shipping in recent days, the ongoing war in the Middle East is likely to overshadow talks during the summit. 

In a pre-departure briefing, Pezeshkian said BRICS was formed “to confront unilateralism,” according to a report by Iranian state news agency IRNA, echoing similar sentiments voiced by the country’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi during the bloc’s meeting of foreign ministers held earlier this year. 

BRICS’ efforts, including the creation of a multilateral development bank, were “to stand against America’s push for dominance,” Pezeshkian said. 

Amit Kumar, a research analyst at the Takshashila Institution think tank in Bangalore, told Arab News that BRICS’ focus has been on “finding alternatives to the US-dominated payment and financial system, including cutting reliance on the dollar.” 

But he said the upcoming summit may produce “nothing very significant,” as the bloc’s capacity to make “any meaningful contribution to the global economic order is limited” due to China’s “tendency to weaponize trade,” thus threatening global order, and India’s relations with the US, which “are much more important and significant” for Delhi.