Kremlin Sets September 11 Date for Modi-Putin Meeting, With Su-57 Jets and US Oil Tariffs on the Table

Since Modi and Putin last met face-to-face on August 31 at the SCO Summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, the two leaders have moved to lock in a second meeting within weeks. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed Tuesday, September 8, that Putin will hold a bilateral sit-down with Modi in New Delhi on Friday, September 11, one day before the 18th BRICS Summit opens at Bharat Mandapam, according to Hindustan Times and the Times of India.

This will be Putin and Modi's first meeting on Indian soil since Putin's December 2025 visit, when the two leaders famously rode together in Putin's Aurus Senat limousine to 7 Lok Kalyan Marg, a habit India Today notes they repeated in Bishkek and in Tianjin, China, last year, where they reportedly talked inside a car for over 40 minutes.

Su-57s, Nuclear Plants, and Rupee-Ruble Trade

Peskov told reporters Moscow is awaiting negotiations with India on new nuclear power plants and confirmed the sale of Su-57 fifth-generation fighter jets is on the table, according to both the Times of India and Hindustan Times. Trade and economic cooperation will headline the bilateral agenda, Peskov said.

He also emphasized that the majority of India-Russia payments now run through national currencies rather than dollars, and pointed to trade turnover growth of 2.6% in the first half of 2026, a sevenfold jump in Indian students studying in Russia to 40,000, and a 16% rise in tourist flows between the two countries, figures Putin cited directly to Modi at the Bishkek meeting per India Today's account.

The Tariff Fight in the Background

The meeting comes as Washington has proposed a 100% tariff on countries that buy Russian crude oil, a policy that would land squarely on India, one of Russia's largest oil customers. Peskov called the move "illegal and unacceptable," Hindustan Times reported.

India buys discounted Russian crude because it serves India's own energy security and national interest, a position New Delhi has defended consistently rather than apologized for. Critics in Washington argue that continued Indian purchases blunt the effectiveness of sanctions meant to pressure Moscow over Ukraine, and that a Su-57 deal would deepen a defense relationship that complicates America's broader push to counter China.

Modi's Peace Pitch, Restated

Modi has not been shy about pressing Putin on Ukraine directly. At the Bishkek meeting, Modi told Putin, "Every day spent perpetuating war pushes humanity backwards, and every step taken towards peace fills the whole of humanity with new hope and enthusiasm. We must move from endless war towards the end of war," according to Hindustan Times and India Today, which both quote the remark identically, indicating a single official readout rather than independent confirmation.

Modi also invoked India's heritage as "the land of Gandhi and Buddha" in pressing for dialogue, per India Today. Whether that rhetoric translates into any concrete peace initiative from the September 11 meeting remains unclear. No source indicates India has proposed a specific mediation framework beyond stated support for dialogue.

The Bigger Stage: Xi, Guterres, and a Crowded Summit

The Modi-Putin meeting is a sideshow to a much larger event. The BRICS Summit runs September 12-13 in New Delhi, with Chinese President Xi Jinping expected to attend what would be his first trip to India since the 2019 informal Mamallapuram meeting, according to Hindustan Times. UN Secretary-General António Guterres, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and several other heads of state and government are also expected.

India is chairing the bloc in 2026 under the theme "Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability," per fvbb.com's report citing Economic Times. The 11-member core group now includes Indonesia, which became a full member in 2025, alongside Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and the UAE.

Notably, Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar is separately scheduled to visit Ukraine and Poland ahead of the summit, a signal that New Delhi is working both sides of the war rather than picking one. Whether that balancing act survives the pressure of Trump's proposed oil tariffs, and whether Xi's possible presence at the same summit table as Modi and Putin produces any substantive trilateral signal, are questions the September 12-13 gathering will have to answer.