India has sent an invitation to Russia to participate in the 18th BRICS Summit, scheduled to be held in New Delhi on September 12-13, Russian state news agency TASS reported on Friday, citing a government source.
"The invitation to the BRICS summit has been sent to Russia," the source told TASS.
India is chairing BRICS in 2026 and will host the annual summit under the theme, "Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability."
Earlier on Friday, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said preparations for the summit were underway.
"We are working to hold the BRICS Summit in India. We are the chair of the BRICS Summit, and we are making preparations to host the BRICS Summit with full preparations," Jaiswal said during the ministry's weekly media briefing.
The reported invitation to Russia comes days after Bangladesh said it had also received an invitation from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to participate in the outreach segment of the summit.
ANI reported earlier that Bangladesh Foreign Ministry had said that the invitation had been forwarded to the Prime Minister's Office for consideration and that a decision on participation would be taken by Bangladesh's leadership.
The outreach segment of the BRICS Summit typically includes invited non-member countries and regional leaders.
BRICS currently comprises 11 members — Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. India assumed the BRICS chairmanship for 2026 following the conclusion of the previous summit.
