BRICS 2026: Putin and Modi have high expectations going into key summit

BRICS 2026: Putin and Modi have high expectations going into key summit

The Russian and Indian leaders are expected to discuss defense, energy cooperation, trade, and space amid deepening bilateral ties
Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to arrive in India for the BRICS summit in New Delhi, where he is meeting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday. 
The meeting is expected to build on the warm spirit and progress made in bilateral relations based around the personal relations between the two leaders.  
India and Russia also have kept up high-level diplomatic and economic contacts, amid geopolitical turbulence. Putin and Modi most recently met last week in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit.
Three Russian IL-76 planes, carrying advance teams and military officials, reportedly landed in the Indian city of Greater Noida on Thursday morning. The teams are reviewing preparations and security arrangements as Delhi gears up to host world leaders for the BRICS summit on September 12-13. 
Energy the bedrock of the relationshipIndia has become the second biggest importer of Russian oil as New Delhi seeks to secure the energy needs of its 1.4 billion population. Russia sold around 2.1 million barrels per day of oil to India, or 45% of the country’s total imports, in August – even as New Delhi has widened its crude basket. 
But it is not a simple buyer-seller relationship, with both sides invested in each other’s energy ecosystem. India’s state-run ONGC Videsh holds a 20% stake in Russia’s Sakhalin-1 oil field project. A consortium of state-run Indian oil majors have sizable stakes in Russian oil company Rosneft’s subsidiaries, Vankorneft and Taas-Yuryakh Neftegazodobycha. 
Rosneft holds nearly half of India’s Nayara Energy, which owns a refinery in Gujarat and a wide downstream network.
The implications of India’s Russian oil purchases are global. Indian refiners play a major role in preventing crude prices from surging out of control as the Middle East conflict chokes off a large chunk of global supply. More specifically, Europe buys about 60% of its diesel and 15% of its jet fuel from Indian refiners, which it has – counterintuitively – tried to sanction over Russian oil.
Moscow has repeatedly said it is ready to supply as much oil as India needs, despite the threat of Western sanctions on New Delhi. 
Nuclear energy is another key dimension of the relationship, with India setting itself an ambitious nuclear power target to generate 100 gigawatts by 2047. Two of the six units of the Koodankulam nuclear power plant, built in collaboration with Russia’s Rosatom in south India, are generating electricity, and four more are under construction.
Putin and Modi agreed in December to further discuss a second nuclear power plant and finalize the site for it – reportedly in Tirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu.
India also is eyeing Russia’s small modular reactors, or SMRs, to achieve its energy targets.
Expanding economic ties is imperativeBilateral trade has jumped in volume since Putin’s last visit to India, when a $100 billion target was set to be achieved by 2030. However, India has run up a massive trade deficit against Russia through its oil purchases. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that Russian businesses are looking to buy more Indian goods and establish joint projects to address the trade gap. 
The same geopolitical tensions that have pushed India to buy more Russian oil are also opening up avenues to expand bilateral economic ties to new areas.
Read more Russian aviation companies could lead the charge. The CEO of Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation, Vadim Badekha, said a licensing agreement with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited for producing the SJ-100 regional jet is being finalized and the contract could be signed soon. 
The first localized version of the Superjet could be made in Indi