Iranian President, Masoud Pezeshkian, arrived in New Delhi this Friday with a clear message: Iran needs new routes to survive the economic and military pressure from the United States. Its top leader took advantage of the first day of the BRICS economic forum to describe his country’s situation as “critical and dangerous” and to demand a diversification of its trading partners, sources of financing, and payment channels.
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“Iran has been subject to heavy sanctions in recent years; this pressure has reached a critical and dangerous stage in recent months following the military aggression by the US and Israel,” Pezeshkian stated. The Iranian president also spoke of a world immersed in an “unprecedented period of complexity,” a phrase that aptly summarizes the scenario in which the bloc of major emerging economies meets this weekend.
For Tehran, the key lies in diversification, and Pezeshkian put several issues on the table, such as food and energy security. He also presented his country’s location — between Central Asia, the Persian Gulf, and the routes connecting East and West — as one of its main assets.
“Iran’s geographical position allows us to play the role of a strategic partner in the BRICS energy, food, and transportation supply chains,” he said.
The nation formally joined the BRICS in 2024 and finds in the group a space to engage with countries that do not participate in the Western sanctions weighing on its economy. Pezeshkian raised precisely one of the issues that most interests Tehran: to what extent can the BRICS become an economic network capable of reducing dependence on the US-dominated financial system?
Precisely here also appears one of the forum’s contradictions. The BRICS have grown to include eleven members, representing nearly half of the world’s population and around 40% of the global economy measured by purchasing power parity. Their size allows them to present themselves as an alternative to an international order dominated for decades by the West. However, their interests do not always coincide. India maintains strategic relations with the US, China, and Russia; Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have their own alliances with Washington; and while Moscow and Tehran share an obvious interest in reducing the weight of sanctions, New Delhi has avoided turning the group into an openly anti-American platform.
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The link with India
Shortly after his speech, Pezeshkian met with Narendra Modi to continue the talks they began on August 31 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit. In that meeting, Modi advocated dialogue and diplomacy to resolve the conflict in the Middle East and called for the protection of navigation and trade.
With needs similar to Pezeshkian’s, Vladimir Putin landed yesterday in New Delhi to strengthen relations with his partners outside the West. The Russian president and Modi met for the second time in just two weeks to discuss energy, defense, and the conflicts in the Middle East and the Black Sea. The Ukraine war has made Russia an uncomfortable partner for India before Washington and Europe, but also a source of energy difficult to replace. In July, Russian oil accounted for 51 percent of India’s crude imports, a record also driven by supply disruptions from the Middle East.
Their relationship has a much more practical dimension than the images of Modi and Putin embracing before sitting down to talk. India wants cheap and stable oil; Russia needs markets to sell it and partners to offset its Western isolation. Both countries also aim to raise their bilateral trade to 100 billion dollars by 2030, compared to nearly 70 billion recorded in the 2024-25 fiscal year.
The president of China, Xi Jinping, arrives in India today to take part in the economic forum. It will be his first visit to New Delhi in seven years and the second meeting between the two in two weeks after their meeting on the sidelines of the SCO. Modi has the opportunity to continue redirecting the relationship with the neighboring country after the 2020 border tensions and with Beijing as a strategic adversary, especially because, in defense matters, India continues to look to the US.
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