Representing 41.1% of the world’s population and 37.3% of its GDP, the bloc aims to counterbalance United States-led Western alliances.

Russia wants the BRICS summit to showcase the rising clout of the non-Western world, but Moscow's partners from China, India, Brazil and the Arab world are urging President Vladimir Putin to find a way to end the war in Ukraine.

Touts gathering as diplomatic triumph to challenge Western “hegemony”; Modi praises “special and privileged strategic partnership” with Russia.