PM Modi, Vladimir Putin hold bilateral meet day before BRICS summit

The two leaders reportedly discussed strengthening civil nuclear ties, including in areas like fuel and life cycle support, as well as support over critical minerals.

3 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Sep 11, 2026 04:52 PM IST

The bilateral meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has begun.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi during their bilateral meet. (ANI Photo/ Image enhanced using AI)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Delhi for a 45-minute bilateral Friday afternoon, a day before the two-day BRICS summit. The meeting – expected to focus on trade, energy, and defence – began at 3.30 pm.

Details of the meeting have not been released yet, but oil was likely a big talking point. Russia remains one of India’s largest crude oil suppliers; even though imports fell 26 per cent in August, Delhi still bought roughly two million barrels per day.

That relationship has been underlined by the war in Iran and the squeeze on imports via the Strait of Hormuz, and despite pressure from the West – specifically the US – to scale down purchases Washington claims is funding the Ukraine war.

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Another likely key aspect of the talks was enhancing bilateral trade to $100 billion by 2030. Trade between the two countries was nearly $70 billion in FY25.

The third focus area is likely defence, including proposals to sell the Sukhoi Su-57 fighter – a fifth-generation jet designed to compete with the US’ F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning. The SU-57 is capable of operating in a number of roles and features an array of stealth technologies, advanced sensors, and electronic warfare suites.

The two leaders may also speak on strengthening civil nuclear ties, including in areas like fuel and life cycle support, as well as support over critical minerals.

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This is the second time in three weeks that Modi and Putin have met; the previous time was in Kyrgyzstan – on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit. On that occasion the Prime Minister delivered a message of peace.

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“We must move from endless wars to ending wars,” he said and urged the Russian leader to consider that ‘all issues (can be resolved) through peaceful means’.

This is Putin’s first visit to India since December last year; that was for an India-Russia summit. It is, however, his first in-person attendance at a BRICS summit since the war against Ukraine began in February 2022.

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