India hosts the 18th BRICS Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi on 12 and 13 September, seeking to lift the bloc’s global profile while the US-led war on Iran divides its own membership.

Xi’s attendance confirmed

China’s foreign ministry ended days of diplomatic suspense on Thursday, confirming the visit in a statement: “At the invitation of Prime Minister of the Republic of India Narendra Modi, President Xi Jinping will attend the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi from September 12 to 13,” Hiru News reported.

Earlier the same day, foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun had declined to confirm it, telling reporters: “I have no information to provide regarding the question you raised.”

It is Xi’s first visit to India in seven years. He last travelled there in 2019 for an informal summit with Modi at Mamallapuram, before the 2020 Galwan Valley border clashes — which killed 20 Indian soldiers and an undisclosed number of Chinese troops — froze relations. LankaNewz reported in August that Xi was expected to attend with a large delegation; that expectation is now official.

The Iran-UAE problem

The summit comes more than six months after the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran, a BRICS member since 2024. The conflict has all but shut the Strait of Hormuz and pushed crude above US$100 a barrel — the same shock that has been driving Brent higher and weighing on the Colombo bourse.

Fellow member the UAE, struck by Iranian missiles since the war began, suspended all trade and financial transactions with Iran in August. Both will be in the same room.

Foreign policy analysts say the bloc’s key test is finding language on the Middle East that both Abu Dhabi and Tehran can accept, clearing the way for a joint declaration. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that the differences between the two had a “negative impact” and were getting in the way of drafting that declaration, though he hoped leaders would find acceptable phrasing.

Such a statement would be unlikely to shift the geopolitical landscape, analysts told Reuters, but would demonstrate that a forum of emerging economies can hold a common line against measures such as Western sanctions.

Who is coming

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian — whose attendance was flagged in August — South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, Egypt’s Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Indonesia’s Prabowo Subianto are all due, alongside UN Secretary-General António Guterres. The UAE is expected to be represented by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Originally Brazil, Russia, India and China, later joined by South Africa, BRICS has since admitted Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the UAE and Indonesia. Saudi Arabia’s status remains ambiguous: it has not accepted full membership but participates with lower-level delegations.

Why it matters here

Sri Lanka is not a BRICS member, but the summit’s central dispute is the war that has put crude over US$100 — the single largest external pressure on the country’s import bill and fuel pricing this quarter.

Not reported

Neither report says whether a joint declaration has been drafted, what the summit agenda covers beyond the Middle East, or whether any bilateral Xi-Modi meeting is scheduled alongside it. Both are wire copy carried by Hiru News; no other verified newsroom available to us had filed a same-day report on the summit’s opening.