New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday (September 11) reiterated that dialogue and diplomacy were the way forward in resolving conflicts as he met Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in New Delhi.Putin arrived in New Delhi shortly after midnight on Thursday to attend the 18th BRICS summit and is scheduled to spend three days in the capital. Modi’s meeting with Putin was his first bilateral with any of the leaders visiting India for the summit.“Prime minister once again reiterated that dialogue and diplomacy was the way forward in resolving conflicts and India stood ready to assist in peace efforts,” the MEA said in its readout of the meeting.Modi had made a similar appeal to Putin when they met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Bishkek on August 31. He told the Russian president that the world needed to move from “endless war” to the “end of war” and called for a cessation of hostilities.The meeting in New Delhi came days after external affairs minister S. Jaishankar travelled to Kyiv, where he also stressed diplomacy as the route to ending the war. During his September 3 visit, Jaishankar told Ukrainian officials that the conflict “will be solved by dialogue, by diplomacy, by negotiation”, while defending India’s continued purchases of Russian oil.The Black Sea has acquired a more direct significance for India following a series of attacks on merchant vessels in July that killed Indian seafarers. India had summoned Russia’s chargé d’affaires after four Indian seafarers were killed when the MV Golden Leo was struck in the Black Sea. It also summoned Ukraine’s ambassador after an Indian seafarer was killed in an attack on another merchant vessel.Modi and Putin discussed the issue, according to the Indian readout, which said the two leaders had also reviewed the impact of the Ukraine war and the West Asia conflict on maritime trade.Much of the bilateral meeting, however, focused on the broader India-Russia relationship. The two leaders reviewed cooperation in political, economic, defence, energy, space and other areas and discussed ways to expand trade and industrial ties.After their meeting, Modi and Putin travelled together in Putin’s armoured Aurus Senat from Bharat Mandapam to the INNOPROM India exhibition, also being held at the convention centre.The shared ride has now become a recurring feature of their meetings. The two first travelled together in Tianjin in September 2025, when Putin offered Modi a ride from the SCO summit venue to the Ritz-Carlton for their bilateral.They repeated the gesture during Putin’s December 2025 visit to India, travelling together from Palam airport to Modi’s residence, and again in Bishkek last month, when they rode together to the opening ceremony of the World Nomad Games.In his speech at the BRICS Business Forum, Putin portrayed the grouping as an emerging centre of global economic power and criticised Western attempts to preserve their dominance through sanctions and other trade restrictions.“The world is changing,” Putin said, arguing that the traditional economic powers of the second half of the 20th century were being replaced by “new growth drivers”. He said BRICS countries accounted for more than 40% of global GDP and nearly half of global economic growth over the previous five years.Putin also accused Western countries of turning economic competition into something more coercive. “They go so far as to employ instruments of direct physical force, including the destruction of industrial and logistical infrastructure, pipelines and similar facilities,” he said, adding that efforts were also being made to block transport corridors and seize ships.“Illegal restrictions are also being imposed, accompanied by threats of so-called secondary sanctions,” Putin said, in a clear reference to the pressure facing countries that continue to trade with Russia.Putin’s remarks came as India faces the prospect of punitive US measures under the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, which the US senate passed last month and which would allow the president to impose tariffs of up to 100% on countries that are among the largest purchasers of Russian oil or gas.