NEW DELHI: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has arrived in New Delhi on Friday to attend the BRICS Summit, marking the first visit by an Iranian president to India in more than eight years. He is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi at 6:15 pm.
Pezeshkian’s visit is noted as tensions between Iran, Israel and the United States continue to threaten a wider regional confrontation.
Tehran has faced growing pressure to respond more forcefully to attacks, while the possibility of the conflict spreading beyond its existing regions is raising concerns over maritime security and energy supplies.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has already warned of a possible expansion of restrictions into the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, including routes leading towards the Strait of Hormuz.
It has also warned vessels in ports and anchorages in Kuwait and Bahrain to leave, signalling the potential for the confrontation to acquire a wider maritime dimension.
For India, the developments carry direct strategic implications.
The Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz are vital to India’s energy supplies and trade, while Chabahar remains a key Indian connectivity project linking India with Iran and Central Asia. Any disruption to shipping or a further escalation around Hormuz could therefore have implications well beyond West Asia.
Pezeshkian’s remarks ahead of the visit also underline Tehran’s broader geopolitical messaging. He has argued that the BRICS New Development Bank was created to reduce countries’ dependence on the dollar and counter what he sees as US efforts to dominate the global financial system.
The Iranian president's meeting with Modi comes just hours after the PM’s scheduled talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and a day before he meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The sequence gives the India-Iran engagement added significance, placing Tehran’s concerns over regional security, sanctions and economic isolation alongside New Delhi’s efforts to maintain strategic ties with competing power centres.
For India, the immediate priority is likely to be pragmatic: keeping channels with Tehran open, protecting trade and energy routes, safeguarding the Chabahar project in the long run without angering the US and preventing the escalating Iran confrontation from spilling into the wider Indian Ocean region yet again.