Iran president Pezeshkian to visit India for BRICS summit amid Middle East tensions
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is expected to travel to New Delhi in September to attend the BRICS Summit being hosted by India during its 2026 BRICS presidency.
The visit follows a formal invitation extended during a June 2026 telephone conversation between the Indian Prime Minister and the Iranian President.
Iran has indicated it views India as a potential partner in easing tensions across West Asia, with Iran's Foreign Minister stating during an earlier June visit to India that Tehran sees no military solution to the regional conflict and regards negotiations as the only viable path forward.
The visit takes place against a backdrop of heightened tensions across West Asia, with energy security and regional connectivity expected to feature in bilateral discussions alongside the multilateral BRICS agenda.
BRICS — Membership Expansion and India's 2026 Presidency
BRICS has evolved from a four-country grouping into an expanded bloc that now includes Iran, making Pezeshkian's visit his first as a full BRICS member state leader attending a summit hosted by India.
Key Details
- BRICS originated as "BRIC" (Brazil, Russia, India, China), a term coined in 2001; South Africa joined in 2010, making it BRICS; the first formal summit was held in 2009 (Yekaterinburg, Russia).
- In August 2023, BRICS announced expansion to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, effective January 1, 2024, taking full membership to ten countries (Saudi Arabia has not formally taken up membership).
- India holds the BRICS presidency for 2026 and is hosting the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi (September 12-13, 2026) under the theme "Building Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability," continuing the "humanity first" emphasis carried over from Brazil's 2025 presidency.
- BRICS operates by consensus with no binding charter or permanent secretariat; its main institutional creation is the New Development Bank (NDB), headquartered in Shanghai, established in 2015.
Pezeshkian's visit is significant as Iran's first BRICS summit attendance in India, testing how the expanded, more geopolitically diverse BRICS (now including a country under Western sanctions) manages consensus-based diplomacy on a live regional conflict during India's presidency year.
India-Iran Relations — Chabahar Port and the INSTC Corridor
India-Iran engagement centres on connectivity infrastructure that gives India access to Afghanistan and Central Asia while bypassing Pakistan, making the bilateral relationship strategically important independent of the BRICS multilateral track.
Key Details
- Chabahar Port, on Iran's Gulf of Oman coast, is developed and operated through a 2024 ten-year agreement between India Ports Global Limited (IPGL) and Iran's Aria Banader company; it is the only Indian-operated port facility overseas.
- Chabahar serves as the southern anchor of the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), a roughly 7,200-km multimodal (rail, road, sea) route linking India to Russia via Iran, Azerbaijan, and Central Asia, intended to cut transit time and cost compared with the Suez Canal route.
- India has committed financing including an $85 million berth-development contribution and a $150-million Exim Bank credit line for Chabahar-linked infrastructure; a rail link connecting Chabahar to Zahedan has been under development.
- The United States has periodically granted and reviewed sanctions exemptions for Chabahar given its humanitarian and Afghanistan-reconstruction rationale, making the port's status sensitive to shifts in US-Iran relations.
West Asia tensions directly threaten the Chabahar-INSTC investment, giving India a concrete strategic interest — beyond BRICS solidarity — in supporting de-escalation during Pezeshkian's visit.
India's Traditional Non-Alignment and Balancing Diplomacy in West Asia
India's approach to Iran alongside its Gulf and Israeli partnerships reflects its long-standing doctrine of strategic autonomy, now often described as "multi-alignment," in a region where India maintains simultaneous ties with rival power blocs.
Key Details
- India maintains active strategic partnerships with Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Israel simultaneously, a policy of issue-based engagement rather than bloc alignment, consistent with India's post-Cold War shift from Non-Aligned Movement (NAM, founded 1961) orthodoxy toward pragmatic multi-alignment.
- India sources a significant share of its crude oil imports from Gulf countries, giving it a direct energy-security stake in West Asian stability; overland and maritime energy routes near the Strait of Hormuz (through which a large share of global seaborne oil trade transits) are particularly sensitive to regional conflict.
- India has historically abstained from directly taking sides in Israel-Iran or Iran-US confrontations at multilateral forums, favouring calls for de-escalation and dialogue over explicit condemnation.
- The Ministry of External Affairs has articulated India's West Asia policy around three pillars: energy security, diaspora welfare (a large Indian expatriate population resides in the Gulf), and connectivity (via INSTC and the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, IMEC, announced at the 2023 G20 Summit).
Iran's statement that it sees India as a potential facilitator for de-escalation reflects India's accumulated credibility from this balancing diplomacy, an asset it can draw on if West Asia tensions require third-party engagement during its BRICS presidency.
- BRICS expanded to include Iran effective January 1, 2024, alongside Egypt, Ethiopia, and the UAE.
- 18th BRICS Summit: New Delhi, September 12-13, 2026, under India's 2026 presidency.
- Chabahar Port operating agreement: 2024, ten-year term, IPGL-Aria Banader.
- INSTC corridor length: approximately 7,200 km, linking India, Iran, Russia, Azerbaijan, and Central Asia.
- New Development Bank (NDB): established 2015, headquartered in Shanghai.
- India's West Asia diplomacy pillars: energy security, diaspora welfare, and connectivity (INSTC, IMEC).