Days after Iran signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with US President Donald Trump to end hostilities, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke on the phone with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
As per the Iranian readout, amid expressions of condolences following the martyrdom of the Ayatollah Khomenei and other Iranian officials and citizens during the recent war, PM Modi also extended the formal invite to Iran for the upcoming 18th BRICS Leaders' Summit in India.
The PM “formally invited the President of Iran to attend the upcoming BRICS Leaders’ Summit to be hosted by India and expressed hope that the meeting would contribute to further strengthening multilateral cooperation among the member countries,” Iran posted on X.
A test of India’s ambivalence on BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), however, may become available soon. Despite Indian publications strenuously claiming that Chinese President Xi Jinping has also committed to take part in the BRICS summit scheduled for 12-13 September, there is no firm commitment from Beijing as yet.
Interestingly, while the Chinese leader may still attend the Delhi event, his proposed visit to the White House to take part in what a voluble US President is calling the "G2 summit" has been gathering more attention.
Xi’s trip to Washington so soon after his yet to be confirmed visit to attend the BRICS summit in Delhi raises questions about the importance of the event organised by India. It is deliberate. The profile of BRICS has grown, but India's ambivalence towards the body has led to it being called "the weakest link" of this transcontinental grouping, as envisaged by the Goldman Sachs’s former chief economist Jim O’Neill.