BRICS Balancing Act: India Puts Next Gen Ministers In the Spotlight

Keeping in line with the push for the next generation of leaders, several young Ministers of State were sent to receive heads of state and government, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, South African President Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa, Vietnamese Prime Minister Lê Minh Hưng and Philippines President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.

Jitin Prasada, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, received Chinese President Xi Jinping. Anupriya Patel, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, received Philippines President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. upon his arrival.

Shantanu Thakur, Minister of State for Ports, Shipping and Waterways, received Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. Murlidhar Mohol, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, received Vietnamese Prime Minister Lê Minh Hưng. Satish Chandra Dubey, India's Minister of State for Coal and Mines, received Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto.

Sanjay Seth, Minister of State for Defence, received Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali. Kirti Vardhan Singh, Minister of State for External Affairs, received Russian President Vladimir Putin, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Uruguayan Foreign Affairs Minister Mario Lubetkin was received by senior officials from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), as was Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira.

For multilateral events, it is usually a Minister of State who receives heads of state and government, particularly when several leaders are arriving. For a state visit, however, Union ministers are usually sent to receive the visiting leader.

The deployment of Ministers of State can also involve strategic portfolio matching to highlight specific bilateral priorities, according to sources. Sending the Minister of State for Commerce and Industry to receive a visiting leader, for instance, can signal the importance attached to economic ties.

What Does BRICS Want?

The BRICS summit in New Delhi comes as the grouping struggles to find consensus on a range of issues, from conflicts in West Asia to reform of the United Nations Security Council. The two-day summit, on September 12 and 13, is taking place amid global upheaval, with the US-Israel war on Iran, Russia’s war in Ukraine and turmoil in global energy markets. Despite this being India’s fourth chairship, the presidency has largely been a low-key affair.

The bloc also faces internal strains, with differences among members over the US-Israel war on Iran, the continuing clashes between Saudi Arabia and the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, and the long-running border tensions between India and China.

BRICS has also come under scrutiny from the US. President Donald Trump has threatened steep tariffs if the grouping’s 11 members move towards “de-dollarisation”.

The grouping was formed in 2006, with Brazil, Russia, India and China holding the first BRIC summit in 2009. South Africa joined a year later. In 2023, BRICS invited Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to join. Indonesia joined in 2025. Argentina was also invited but declined.

The bloc now has 11 members, representing roughly 49 per cent of the world’s population and about 40 per cent of global GDP.

The broad ambition of BRICS is to challenge the economic and political dominance of the West. For India, however, the summit also offers an opportunity to project itself at the centre of a shifting global order, adding to the geopolitical stakes of its presidency.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday afternoon and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian later that evening. Their discussions focused partly on the global conflicts and their impact on food, fertilisers and fuel.