NEW DELHI — Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to visit India this September to attend the upcoming BRICS Summit in New Delhi, the Russian government confirmed on Tuesday. The high-profile diplomatic event, slated to take place on September 12 and 13, will mark Putin’s second visit to India within a year, reflecting the accelerating momentum in bilateral relations between Moscow and New Delhi. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had officially extended the invitation to the Russian President during the latter’s previous state visit to India in December 2025.
The upcoming summit underscores India’s current chairmanship of BRICS, an influential bloc of major emerging economies that recently expanded its membership beyond Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa to include Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates, and Indonesia. Under its ongoing presidency, New Delhi is hosting a series of ministerial and working-group meetings across various cities. The core focus of India’s leadership centers on amplifying the voice of the Global South, promoting a multipolar world order, and deepening collaborative efforts in counter-terrorism, energy security, supply chain resilience, and digital public infrastructure. The summit arrives at a critical juncture as BRICS positioning itself as a key alternative platform navigating current geopolitical conflicts, including Middle East tensions and global economic uncertainties.
Ahead of the heads-of-state summit, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited India earlier this month to participate in the BRICS Foreign Ministers’ meeting, where he engaged in deliberations regarding global security frameworks and multilateral institutional reforms. On May 15, Lavrov confirmed that Moscow is actively preparing for Prime Minister Modi’s reciprocal visit to Russia later this year for the annual India-Russia Bilateral Summit. While the exact operational dates remain under finalization, historical trends suggest the high-level exchange will likely materialize during the final quarter of the year, continuing a institutionalized diplomatic tradition established in 2000.
The preceding bilateral summit in December 2025, which marked Putin’s first trip to India since the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict, yielded several landmark agreements that continue to strengthen the economic and strategic axis between the two nations. In the energy sector, Russia committed to guaranteeing uninterrupted fuel supplies to sustain India’s economic growth. Furthermore, industrial agreements paved the way for Indian firms to establish a joint urea production plant in partnership with Russia’s URALCHEM. Additional bilateral pacts signed during the winter session included memoranda of understanding on food safety regulations, medical research, maritime logistics, and streamlined migration and mobility protocols designed to ease travel for professionals.
