Modi Holds Pezeshkian’s Hand at BRICS: One Picture, Multiple Messages for India’s Strategic Autonomy
Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian during the BRICS Summit 2026 in New Delhi. (Image Iran embassy in New Delhi)
By NIRENDRA DEV
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s warm interaction with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, alongside Vladimir Putin, captures New Delhi’s effort to keep diplomatic channels open with competing global power centres.
New Delhi, September 12, 2026 — If a headline does not follow Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister knows how to get it there.
At the BRICS Business Forum in New Delhi, Modi was photographed holding the hand of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in a striking moment that carried a message beyond the optics of a summit.
Two other important BRICS leaders — Russian President Vladimir Putin and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa — were alongside them.
The photograph captured, in a single frame, the broad contours of India’s diplomatic approach: engage Iran and Russia, maintain space for dialogue and trade, and avoid being drawn into rigid geopolitical camps.
Iran is at the centre of a regional conflict that has disrupted energy calculations and raised concerns over maritime trade. Russia remains under extensive Western sanctions over the Ukraine war.
Yet India has continued to engage both countries while simultaneously maintaining important strategic and economic relationships with the United States, Europe, Japan and the Gulf.
That is the essence of New Delhi’s much-discussed strategic autonomy.
During his meeting with Pezeshkian, Modi called for an end to hostilities through dialogue and diplomacy. He also stressed the importance of protecting civilians, commercial vessels and seafarers, while safeguarding freedom of navigation and commerce.
The message was consistent with India’s broader position: New Delhi does not see neutrality as passivity, but neither does it believe that resolving conflicts requires choosing one geopolitical camp.
Modi struck a similar note during his meeting with Putin.
Modi-Putin meeting adds another layer
The Prime Minister and Russian President discussed bilateral cooperation covering defence, energy, trade and industrial ties.
Modi reiterated India’s position that dialogue and diplomacy remain the way forward for resolving the Ukraine conflict.
The symbolism extended beyond geopolitics. Modi gifted Putin a Russian translation of the ancient Tamil text Thirukkural, adding a cultural dimension to a relationship that has deep strategic roots.
The two leaders later travelled together in the same car to visit the INNOPROM Industrial Exhibition at Bharat Mandapam — another image that quickly became part of the summit’s visual diplomacy.
Earlier, Putin had also used the BRICS Business Summit to question the continuing relevance of the G7, contrasting its economic weight with that of the expanded BRICS grouping.
Putin said G7 countries account for about 18% of global economic output, compared with nearly 40% for BRICS members, presenting the grouping as an increasingly important force in the changing global economic order.
India’s strategic autonomy on display
For New Delhi, however, the BRICS summit is not simply about positioning BRICS against the West.
The 2026 summit is focused on collective resilience, including food and energy security, healthcare, disaster management and critical supply chains.
India’s challenge is to make BRICS more useful without allowing it to become an ideological or anti-Western bloc.
That makes Modi’s interactions with Pezeshkian and Putin particularly significant.
India wants working relations with Tehran and Moscow while retaining its partnerships with Washington and other Western capitals. It also recognises the importance of engagement with Beijing.
The photograph of Modi holding Pezeshkian’s hand therefore says more than a warm diplomatic gesture.
It reflects an increasingly complex Indian foreign-policy proposition: New Delhi does not want to choose between Moscow and Washington, or between Tehran, Beijing and the West. It wants to preserve enough strategic space so that India does not have to choose at all.
(This is an opinion/commentary piece. Views are the author’s own.)
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