Russian and Iranian leaders were in India Friday for talks ahead of a BRICS summit, also to be attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping, that is expected to be dominated by conflict and economic challenges.
The two-day annual summit, opening Saturday, is expected to address Middle East and Ukraine conflicts, global trade turbulence and oil.
Xi arrives Saturday for his first visit to India since 2019. The visit marks the biggest step yet in a cautious thaw between the nations, six years after a deadly military clash along their disputed Himalayan border.
Ties between the nuclear-armed Asian giants have warmed, with flights, visas and high-level contacts gradually restored.
"China stands ready to work with India ... by strengthening communication, enhancing cooperation, and properly handling differences," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Friday.
Deep mistrust remains, with their contested Himalayan frontier, a widening trade deficit and strategic rivalry still complicating ties.
Dozens of Tibetan exiles protested in New Delhi on Friday, waving placards against Xi's visit. Their Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, has lived in India since fleeing a Chinese crackdown in 1959.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who last visited India in December 2021. Moscow is one of New Delhi's most important strategic partners.
"One should engage in debate and friendship only with the virtuous, and nothing whatsoever with the unvirtuous," Modi wrote Friday in a social media message in Sanskrit to welcome leaders to the 11-nation summit.
Posters of a beaming Modi line streets across New Delhi, with heavy deployments of security forces across the capital and widespread traffic restrictions.
BRICS was created in 2009 as a forum for major emerging economies seeking greater influence in institutions dominated by Western powers.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who arrived in New Delhi on Friday and will hold talks with Modi, said "BRICS was established to counter unilateralism," according to Tehran's IRNA news agency.
As well as Iran, BRICS includes Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – countries with sharply differing positions on the Middle East conflict. All three have been admitted to the group in recent years, joining founding member states that include India, China and Russia.
"The Middle East conflict is going to be the central fault line this time during the BRICS summit," said Harsh V. Pant of India's Observer Research Foundation.
"What was seen until last year as an achievement – the expansion of BRICS – today looks like a big constraint on BRICS," Pant said.
Pezeshkian's participation – his first visit to India as Iranian president – will put the Middle East conflict firmly on the agenda.
"The Middle East conflict will provide a stern test of the group's cohesion," said Shilan Shah of Capital Economics, noting the failure of the BRICS foreign ministers to agree on a joint statement when they met in New Delhi in May.
UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan is also expected, as is Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.
India maintains cordial relations with Iran and Israel, but is also careful to strike a delicate balance in its ties with Washington.
New Delhi has navigated the energy crisis sparked by the Middle East conflict in part by turning to Russia for fuel despite Western sanctions as the war against Ukraine drags on.
Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar visited Kyiv this month, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was "grateful to India for its commitment to ending this unjust war."