When Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Xi Jinping and President Vladimir Putin meet in New Delhi today and tomorrow, the most consequential image may again be the leaders of India, China and Russia shaking hands and standing together.
A year after their much-publicised huddle at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin, the three are meeting in a BRICS that is larger, more politically divided and more openly exposed to pressure from the US. Xi is making his first visit to India in seven years, Putin is attending his first summit outside Russia since the invasion of Ukraine, and Modi is trying to hold together relationships with both while retaining close ties with the West too.
