All eyes will be on New Delhi this weekend, as the presidents of Iran, Russia and China gather in India for the 18th BRICS summit. The meeting comes at a critical time as conflicts roil the Middle East and Europe, putting the bloc to one of its biggest tests since its founding 20 years ago.

The Sept. 12-13 summit comes more than six months after the Middle East war broke out between the U.S. and Iran, and at a time when regional tensions are again spiking. It follows the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit earlier this month, where several of the same leaders met.

The BRICS alliance was established in 2006 by founding members Brazil, Russia, India and China, and has since expanded to include nations such as Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

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At the forefront are Iran-India relations, with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Prime Minister Narendra Modi likely to highlight trade, connectivity, energy cooperation and regional developments. The two leaders are meeting less than two weeks after reaffirming their «longstanding» strategic partnership.

In the face of an economic onslaught from Washington, Tehran has been working to deepen ties with Moscow and Beijing. In its latest attempt at securing a critical economic lifeline, Iran is seeking membership in the BRICS New Development Bank. The effort comes as many of Iran’s largest remaining economic partners, including China, India, Russia and the UAE, will all be represented in New Delhi, giving Tehran a rare opportunity to engage several key trading partners collectively, just as the U.S. ramps up sanctions pressure.

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Also in focus is China. President Xi Jinping will be visiting India for the first time in seven years. The high-stakes trip marks the biggest step yet in a cautious thaw between India and China after a deadly military clash in 2020 along their disputed Himalayan border. A bilateral meeting between Modi and Xi is expected to focus on maintaining that normalization while expanding economic engagement, making it one of the summit’s most closely watched sidelines meetings.

Then there is Russia. President Vladimir Putin met Modi on Friday in a pre-summit bilateral meeting. It marks Putin’s first trip to India since the Ukraine war began four years ago.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin (L) shakes hands with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi (R) during their meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in New Delhi on Sept. 11, 2026. (Alexander Kazakov/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Energy and defense are expected to dominate the agenda after the Russian president criticized American tariffs as «illegal» and «unacceptable.»

Just earlier this week, the Kremlin touted expanding energy ties, saying India’s imports of Russian energy have reached a «new record» every month. Moscow has also said Russia understands India’s position on the war in Ukraine and that it «to a great extent corresponds» with Russia’s own position, while calling on India to facilitate a peaceful resolution.

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Traffic moves along a street past a hoarding, displayed ahead of the BRICS summit in New Delhi on September 9, 2026. (Photo by Sajjad Hussain/AFP via Getty Images)

The meeting also comes days after Putin publicly welcomed the UAE’s role in facilitating discussions over the Ukraine war, highlighting Abu Dhabi’s increasingly influential diplomatic role as another major BRICS participant.

Saudi Arabia will also be watched after Iran-backed Houthi militia renewed attacks on its cities earlier this week.

Both the UAE and Saudi Arabia have become increasingly central to India’s Gulf strategy. The summit also comes as New Delhi attempts to navigate widening divisions between Tehran and Abu Dhabi after the UAE cut off commercial and financial dealings with Iran. The suspension has already squeezed Indian exporters, as Dubai has long served as a key commercial hub for India’s trade with Iran, giving India a direct economic incentive.

The BRICS summit will be a major test of India’s diplomatic mettle in more ways than one, as the nation finds itself balancing competing interests from Washington, Tehran, Moscow, Beijing and the Gulf while trying to forge unity among BRICS members.

«New Delhi’s leadership of BRICS is ultimately an exercise in managing contradiction. The biggest challenge is to ensure BRICS remains a platform for advancing Global South priorities rather than becoming an arena for great-power rivalry, Harsh V. Pant, vice president at Observer Research Foundation, told Fox News Digital. «New Delhi is trying to keep the focus on practical cooperation — from energy security to connectivity and development — rather than ideological confrontation.»

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Xi, Putin and Modi at BRICS. (MAXIM SHIPENKOV/Pool via REUTERS)

Building a unified position among BRICS members will be a complex task for India, especially given the sharp geopolitical divergences among member states, such as the U.S-China rivalry, the Russia-Ukraine war and tensions involving Iran, Israel and the UAE. Modi will have to balance championing his own priorities with the summit’s, as well as toeing the line to avoid an anti-U.S. tilt.

«The balancing act reflects India’s broader foreign policy, which seeks to maintain strong ties with Washington while continuing to engage Moscow, Beijing and Tehran,» Pant said.

Throughout the conflict, India has sought to position itself as a voice for dialogue while avoiding taking sides, emphasizing themes of resilience, sustainability, cooperation and innovation.

But experts warn that failure to reach consensus would expose the limits of the expanded BRICS grouping, whose broader membership has also imported longstanding regional rivalries.

President Donald Trump (R) shakes hands with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a bilateral meeting at the G7 Summit on June 17, 2026, in Evian-les-Bains, France. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Though major Western powers are absent, analysts say the alliance is not to be dismissed. Every ceasefire in this conflict has involved mediation by BRICS members or partners, and leaders gathering in New Delhi are expected to explore whether the forum can once again provide diplomatic momentum after recent attempts to revive negotiations between Washington and Tehran stalled.

«Hosting the BRICS summit in New Delhi offers India an important opportunity to demonstrate the logic of its multi-alignment at a time when global politics is becoming increasingly polarized, «Pant said. «By bringing together countries such as China, Russia, Iran and the Gulf states while simultaneously deepening its partnerships with the United States and the Quad, India is signaling that it does not accept the binary choices imposed by great-power rivalry.»

The stakes extend beyond diplomacy as disruptions from the war have disproportionately affected developing nations. India, the world’s third-largest oil importer and consumer, has already suffered energy and inflation hits. 

«The real measure of India’s success will therefore be its ability to keep BRICS sufficiently inclusive and functional to address Global South priorities while preventing geopolitical divisions from paralyzing the grouping,» Pant said.

Ceremonies at the 9/11 Memorial in New York, the Pentagon and the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania will take place Friday as the nation marks the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when 19 al Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners and attacked the United States.

Officials and others with memories of that day reflected on what they witnessed and what they lost in some cases as the nation mourns anew.

Retired Maj. Gen. Bert Mizusawa, who served in senior Army positions at the Pentagon before 9/11, worked as a senior Pentagon official in the time leading up to 9/11 and knew several colleagues who perished that day.

On that Tuesday, Mizusawa said he was watching coverage of the attack on the Twin Towers from his office when reporters broke in to say the Pentagon had been targeted.

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«I looked out my window and was able to observe the plume of smoke rising from the attack on the Pentagon,» Mizusawa said. «My normal commute took me directly past the section that was destroyed, and the smoke lingered for days.»

Mizusawa, the GOP nominee for Senate against Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said he also played a role in hiring Army Lt. Gen. Timothy Maude, the highest-ranking military officer killed in the Pentagon attack.

He added he just recently met with the lone survivor of the Pentagon’s staff section that took a direct hit from American Airlines Flight 77 that day.

«I reflected that, as tragic as the attack on the Pentagon was, the low-rise multi-ringed structure saved many lives as it was the virtual opposite form of structure compared to the World Trade Center buildings,» he said.

Warner similarly recalled watching the attacks unfold and seeing smoke rise from the Pentagon that day.

«I vividly remember the September 11 attacks, and I watched the smoke rise above the Pentagon…,» he said. «On the 25th anniversary of these tragic attacks, we remember the lives lost at the Pentagon, in Pennsylvania, and in New York City, and our brave first responders whose heroic actions saved countless lives.»

Also in Virginia, President Donald Trump is expected to attend the Pentagon’s ceremony. Trump has attended 9/11 observances at each of the three attack sites in different years.

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Then-candidate Donald Trump greets Maj. Gen. Bert Mizusawa onstage in Greenville, N.C., in 2016. (Ethan Hyman/Getty Images)

In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani are expected to attend the solemn ceremony and reading-of-names at the World Trade Center site.

Hochul’s opponent, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, told Fox News Digital that that day changed his home state and his family forever.

«The pain has never completely gone away,» Blakeman said. «My nephew Tommy was murdered while he was giving first aid to a severely burned woman. I lost many colleagues and friends on that day. We must never forget the danger facing our country from those with anti-American values.»

Tommy, a New York State Courts officer, was reportedly rendering aid to a victim when Tower Two collapsed on him.

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Colorful flowers are left by mourners at the 911 Memorial, offering gifts to remember those killed in the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York City. (Getty Images)

«The terrorist attacks on September 11 forever reshaped our city and state, and every year on the anniversary, New Yorkers feel the weight of unimaginable tragedy and honor the lives lost,» Hochul said, reflecting on the day.

«In the aftermath of 9/11, New Yorkers showed the world what courage, sacrifice and bravery looked like,» she added. 

Fox News Digital also reached out to Mamdani for comment.

Then-New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, left, shakes hands with FBI Director Robert Mueller, right, while Attorney General John Ashcroft and New York GOP Gov. George Pataki look on, as state and Bush administration officials meet after 9/11. (Mike Segar/Getty Images)

Former presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden are expected to attend the 25th anniversary ceremony at the 9/11 Memorial in New York.

Hillary Clinton, then a New York senator, is remembered from a photo with then-Gov. George Pataki and then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani walking through the rubble after the attacks.

New York Republican Gov. George Pataki, left, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, center, and then-Sen. Hillary Clinton, right, walk around Ground Zero after the attacks. (AP File Photo)

Additional Trump administration officials will attend the third ceremony in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. Last year, Veterans Affairs Secretary Douglas Collins represented the administration there.

The memorial is managed by the Department of the Interior, which said it will hold a reading of the names at 10:03 a.m. ET, the time United Flight 93 crashed into a field near U.S. Route 30 after passengers fought back against the hijackers.

Fox News Digital reached out to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Pennsylvania State Treasurer Stacy Garrity — Shapiro’s GOP opponent this fall — for information on their plans for the day and comment on the 25th anniversary remembrance.

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Garrity will be in attendance at the Flight 93 Memorial in her official capacity as Pennsylvania State Treasurer, her campaign said.

Speaking as the GOP’s gubernatorial nominee, Garrity told Fox News Digital she recalls September 11, 2001, as a bright September morning in the commonwealth that she and others thought would be a run-of-the-mill weekday.

«But in the blink of an eye, in the skies over Lower Manhattan, along the shores of the Potomac, and in the fields of western Pennsylvania, our world was forever changed,» Garrity said.

«Twenty-five years later, may God bless the heroes of Flight 93, the first responders to the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and every American who answered the call to serve that day and in the years to follow: Let’s roll,» Garrity added, quoting Flight 93 victim Todd Beamer of Cranbury, N.J., who was recorded calling out that phrase as he led an unsuccessful effort to retake control of the plane from the terrorists.