Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday held a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on the sidelines of the BRICS Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in New Delhi.

This engagement marked the first high-level diplomatic interaction between India and Iran since the outbreak of the Iran war, underscoring the significance of the moment amid rising tensions in West Asia.

India is hosting the BRICS Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on 14 and 15 May 2026, bringing together senior representatives from member nations to deliberate on pressing issues of regional security, global tensions and economic cooperation.

Prime Minister Modi also interacted with other foreign ministers attending the gathering, but his meeting with Araghchi carried particular weight given the ongoing crisis involving Iran, the United States and Israel.

During the BRICS Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, Abbas Araghchi delivered a strongly worded address criticising what he described as American pressure and coercion.

He asserted that Iran’s resistance against “US bullying” was a struggle familiar to many countries present at the forum. “To virtually everyone in this room, our resistance against US bullying is not an unfamiliar battle. So many of us encounter slight variations of the same repugnant coercion,” he declared.

Araghchi urged BRICS nations to work collectively against such practices, emphasising that the countries represented at the meeting were now closer to one another than ever before.

He added, “It is high time for us to jointly step up and work towards making clear that those practices belong in the dustbin of history.” His remarks were seen as a call for solidarity among emerging powers to resist unilateralism and coercive tactics.

The Iranian foreign minister also issued a warning about the dangers posed by growing instability in the region. He argued that countries pursuing “reckless adventures” may believe such actions serve their geopolitical interests, but instability ultimately harms all parties involved. “Those who pursue reckless adventures may believe it furthers their geopolitical interests.

But as consumers and governments around the world now sense and understand, regional instability is a lose-lose proposition for all sides, including the aggressors,” he said.

In one of his sharper observations, Araghchi drew on historical parallels, noting that declining powers often resort to desperate measures to preserve their influence. “History has shown that empires in decline will stop at nothing to arrest their inevitable fates. A wounded animal will desperately claw and roar on its way down,” he remarked, a statement widely interpreted as a reference to the United States’ current posture in West Asia.

The meetings in New Delhi are taking place against the backdrop of heightened tensions following the Iran war and the broader confrontation involving Washington and Tel Aviv.

The presence of Araghchi at the BRICS gathering highlights the growing diplomatic importance of the forum during this crisis, as Iran seeks to rally support among major powers and regional stakeholders.

Iran’s participation in BRICS has gained added significance since its formal entry into the grouping, which now includes several influential global players such as India, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Tehran has consistently emphasised the importance of BRICS as a platform for constructive engagement, particularly under India’s current presidency. Araghchi’s visit to New Delhi, his first since the outbreak of the conflict, reflects Iran’s determination to leverage multilateral forums to shape the regional conversation and counterbalance American influence.

The BRICS Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in New Delhi thus serves not only as a venue for discussions on economic cooperation and global governance but also as a stage for Iran to articulate its grievances and rally support amid the ongoing turmoil in West Asia.

Araghchi’s interventions at the meeting reinforced Tehran’s narrative of resistance and its call for collective action against coercive practices, while his meeting with Prime Minister Modi underscored the importance of India as a key interlocutor in the evolving geopolitical landscape.

Agencies