Subrahmanyam Jaishankar

Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has been India's External Affairs Minister since 2019, a veteran diplomat who served as Foreign Secretary and as India's ambassador to the United States and China. On 14-15 May 2026, he chaired the BRICS foreign ministers meeting in New Delhi, a session that brought together Iran's Abbas Araghchi and Russia's Sergey Lavrov on the same two days that Donald Trump was meeting Xi Jinping in Beijing. Jaishankar has held four high-level calls with Araghchi since the Iran war began on 28 February.

India's position in the Iran conflict is shaped by three direct material interests: stable crude supply (India is one of Iran's largest oil buyers), the safety of Indian crews on Iranian-routed tankers, and Indian firms named in prior OFAC designations for trading with Iran. These interests make India a less-than-reliable conduit for US pressure on Tehran, as Jaishankar's willingness to host Araghchi on the same days as the Trump-Xi summit demonstrates. India has historically maintained strategic autonomy across great-power conflicts; the Delhi meeting is the BRICS institutional expression of that doctrine.

Jaishankar is a prolific Foreign Policy author and noted for his willingness to articulate India's Non-alignment in direct terms — his 2020 book 'The India Way' argued explicitly for multipolarity and hedging across blocs. His chairing of the Delhi BRICS session gives Iran a non-Western multilateral platform at precisely the moment the US is attempting to use the Trump-Xi summit to convert China into a pressure lever on Tehran.

On 15 May 2026 — the second day of the BRICS foreign ministers' session he was chairing — Jaishankar met Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi bilaterally in New Delhi. In that meeting Araghchi confirmed that approximately 13 Indian-flagged vessels were queued at Hormuz, that Iranian military personnel were guiding already-cleared ships through mine and obstacle zones, and that Iran and Oman had opened maritime security consultations. Araghchi also disclosed to Jaishankar that Iran had given India bilateral guidance — the first public confirmation of a state-specific Iran passage briefing disclosed outside the Iranian or Indian official record.

The disclosure matters because it confirms India's de facto participation in Iran's bilateral guided-passage system: Indian flagged vessels are not paying PGSA yuan tolls but are instead in the state-to-state track, where Iran accepts political engagement in lieu. Jaishankar's receipt of this briefing from Araghchi places India on record as a participant in the bilateral guidance architecture without formal endorsement.

The BRICS session Jaishankar chaired ended without a joint declaration on the Iran conflict; India-as-chair issued a Chair's Statement only, reflecting the Iran-UAE deadlock over competing condemnation clauses. Jaishankar has now held five documented high-level contacts with Araghchi since the war began.