New Delhi this week became the stage for one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's most ambitious diplomatic performances yet, as he used India's chairmanship of an expanded BRICS bloc to press both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian toward de-escalation, on Ukraine and on the widening conflict in West Asia, respectively. The back-to-back bilateral meetings, held on the sidelines of the summit, underscored India's attempt to position itself not merely as a member of the emerging-economy grouping but as a broker capable of speaking candidly to adversarial powers that much of the West has isolated.

In his meeting with Putin, Modi told the Russian leader that "dialogue and diplomacy" remain the only viable path to ending the war in Ukraine, according to readouts of the discussion. The two leaders also reviewed the broader arc of the Russo-Indian relationship, touching on political, economic, defence, energy and space cooperation, a reminder that even as Modi nudges Moscow toward the negotiating table, India has no intention of loosening a partnership that dates to the Cold War and has deepened through discounted Russian oil purchases since 2022.

Hours later, Modi turned to Pezeshkian, urging Iran's president to resolve the escalating West Asia conflict through negotiation rather than force. Modi also stressed the importance of freedom of navigation and the safety of seafarers, a pointed reference to the disruption of Red Sea and Gulf shipping lanes that has rattled global trade. For Iran, still under heavy Western sanctions and eager to preserve its economic lifelines, the meeting carried its own weight: Pezeshkian reportedly sought India's commitment to continue existing strategic agreements between the two countries, even as Modi's public warmth toward the Iranian leader signaled that New Delhi has no appetite for choosing sides in the region's spiraling tensions.

A Balancing Act With High Stakes

The optics of Modi's simultaneous outreach to Moscow and Tehran arrived, as one account of the summit put it, against "a difficult diplomatic backdrop" for India as chair of an expanded BRICS. The bloc, which added several new members in recent years, now includes countries with sharply divergent interests and grievances against the Western-led order, from Iran's confrontation with Israel and the United States to Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine. Holding that coalition together, while also avoiding the appearance of endorsing any one member's conflict, has become the central test of India's chairmanship.

Modi's approach reflects a strategy India has pursued with mixed success since Russia's invasion of Ukraine began: maintaining lines of communication with Moscow while insisting, publicly and repeatedly, that war is not the answer. India abstained from most United Nations resolutions condemning Russia and has continued to buy Russian crude at discounted prices, moves that drew criticism from Washington and European capitals but also gave New Delhi a credibility with Moscow that few other democracies retain. That credibility is precisely what allows Modi to say, in the same breath, that he values the relationship with Russia and that he wants the war to end.

A similar logic applies to Iran. India has long depended on the Persian Gulf for energy and for the safety of the roughly nine million Indian workers living and laboring across the region. Any escalation that closes shipping lanes or draws in additional powers threatens both energy security and the remittances that flow back to Indian households. Modi's emphasis on freedom of navigation was not abstract diplomatic language; it spoke directly to India's economic exposure to a region that has grown more volatile.

What It Means for BRICS and India's Global Ambitions

The broader question hovering over the summit is whether BRICS, now enlarged and more ideologically diverse, can actually function as a vehicle for reshaping global economic and political order, as its founders once hoped. The bloc's original promise, symbolized by the rapid growth of Brazil, Russia, India and China in the 2000s, has been complicated by uneven fortunes since then. Russia's economy has been reshaped by sanctions and its reliance on oil and gas exports; Brazil has wrestled with slowing growth and vulnerability to Chinese demand; India itself faced a bruising current account deficit and a plunging rupee in the early 2010s that forced it, alongside China, to help prop up the International Monetary Fund's emergency reserves during the eurozone crisis. That history of shared vulnerability, as much as shared ambition, has long bound the BRICS nations together.

For Modi, hosting this summit is an opportunity to recast that history: to present India not as a country buffeted by global financial crises, as it was a decade ago, but as one confident enough to mediate between nuclear-armed rivals and sanctioned states alike. Whether Putin or Pezeshkian will act on Modi's calls for dialogue remains uncertain; neither leader has shown much appetite for compromise in their respective conflicts. But the very fact that both sat across the table from Modi in New Delhi, listening to India's case for de-escalation, is itself a marker of how far New Delhi's diplomatic reach has extended, and how central India now considers itself to any serious conversation about the future of the global order.