PM Modi to meet Iran FM, other BRICS Ministers before UAE visit

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will travel to New Delhi this week to attend the BRICS Foreign Ministers meeting on May 14 to 15 and is expected to call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi before the latter’s visit to the UAE, diplomatic sources confirmed to The Hindu.

Mr. Araghchi, who will arrive on Wednesday (May 13, 2026), is expected to meet the Prime Minister in a joint call-on along with other BRICS Ministers from Brazil, Russia, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Indonesia on Thursday (May 14, 2026).

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is likely to be in Beijing for the visit of U.S. President Donald Trump set for the same dates. Officials did not confirm whether UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan will travel to Delhi for the BRICS meet or remain in Abu Dhabi to receive Mr. Modi. The flurry of diplomatic meetings at the highest levels indicates India is stepping up its outreach amidst the war in West Asia, which has had a deep economic impact on the country and the region.

Mr. Modi’s visit to the UAE will come at the start of his seven-day five-nation tour from May 15 to 21. He is expected to visit Netherlands, Sweden, Italy, and Norway for bilateral visits. In Oslo, he will attend the Nordic-India Summit including leaders of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Sweden, and Norway.

“This visit underlines the importance of cooperation with India, Norway and the Nordic countries in these times of global instability. We stand together in promoting international cooperation and a rules-based world order,” Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said announcing Mr. Modi’s visit, indicating that the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine, Iran, and Gaza are expected to be discussed during the summit.

The engagements in Delhi and Abu Dhabi will be particularly significant as they come amidst a pause in the war in West Asia, and just as the government begins to implement austerity measures on oil and foreign exchange and travel, proposed by Mr. Modi at a public meeting in Hyderabad on Sunday (May 10, 2026).

Mr. Modi’s meeting with Mr. Araghchi, just ahead of his talks with UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed, comes a week after tensions between Iran and the UAE escalated when Iran attacked the Fujairah oil facility with missiles. India condemned the strikes, while Iran indicated that it was targeting the UAE for its support to the U.S. after American warships attacked Iranian naval boats in the Strait of Hormuz.

This is Mr. Araghchi’s first visit to India in a year. In March, a few days after the U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran began, his deputy Saeed Khatibzadeh had visited Delhi and met External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar. Mr. Araghchi and Mr. Jaishankar have spoken over the telephone five times since the conflict began. Of particular concern for India is the continued blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, with 13 Indian ships and 340 seafarers stuck inside the Strait, and energy, fertilizer and other shipments also held up.

Meanwhile, in Delhi, ahead of the BRICS conference, representatives of all BRICS countries, or ‘Sherpas’, gathered on Monday (May 11, 2026) to discuss the agenda for the grouping of emerging economies.

The BRICS meeting on Thursday (May 14, 2026) and Friday (May 15, 2026), hosted by Mr. Jaishankar, will set the agenda for the summit on September 10 to 11. Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian, UAE President Mohammad Bin Zayed, Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto will be invited to Delhi. Brazilian President Lula, who faces elections in October, will probably not attend and had conveyed his difficulties during his visit to Delhi for the Artificial Intelligence Summit in February this year.