PM Modi, Russia’s Putin hold high-stakes talks ahead of BRICS summit

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was the first foreign dignitary to arrive in New Delhi for the BRICS summit, held his first bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday (September 11, 2026) afternoon. According to sources the two sides took up steps to increase bilateral trade target to $100 billion by 2030 during the talks, and discussed projects in the field of civil nuclear cooperation.

BRICS Summit 2026 updates on September 11

Expanding industrial cooperation with Russia, collaboration in railways, tunneling, developing steel value chain, more business-to-business opportunities featured in the talks. Russia increasing employment opportunities for Indian blue collar professionals and cooperation in the field of mobility of skilled manpower, were also discussed.

Prime Minister Modi gifted President Putin, a Russian translation of Thirukkural. Mr. Modi was accompanied by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Principal Secretary Shaktikanta Das and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and other senior officials in the meeting. Ahead of this meeting, the two leaders had met on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Kyrgyz Republic’s capital Bishkek on August 31 where Prime Minister Modi had called for ending the war in Ukraine.

Sources said among the new and emerging areas, cooperation in the field of critical minerals were also taken up in Friday’s (September 11, 2026) talks. Kremlin in a news release said the President Putin is expected to visit the INNOPROM exhibition that has organised by the Ministries of Commerce of India and Russia jointly. The press note said that Mr. Putin is scheduled to hold several bilateral meetings with leaders of other countries during his stay in New Delhi. “The main agreements reached are expected to be reflected in the summit’s final document,” Kremlin said in a news release on its Telegram channel.

Against the backdrop of continued conflict in West Asia and the supply chain disruption, measures were discussed to ensure energy and fertiliser flow through strategic joint venture.