NEW DELHI — Leaders of the BRICS nations gathered in India on Saturday for talks on trade, investment, energy, food security and global conflicts, as the expanding bloc tries to increase its influence in international institutions and reduce its dependence on Western-led financial systems. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is hosting Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and leaders from the other eight member countries in New Delhi. The summit comes amid the war in Ukraine, an expanding conflict involving Iran and heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing — disputes that have exposed the competing interests within BRICS. The group was established in 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India and China. South Africa joined in 2010, and the bloc has since grown to 11 members. Together, its countries represent roughly half of the world’s population and a substantial portion of global economic output. BRICS leaders are expected to discuss supply chains, technology, energy and food security, as well as reforms to global institutions that members say give developing countries too little influence. They are also promoting wider use of national currencies in trade and payments as an alternative to transactions conducted in U.S. dollars. Russia and China have portrayed BRICS as a vehicle for expanding cooperation among emerging economies and challenging what they see as excessive Western influence. Speaking at a business forum in New Delhi on Friday, Putin said the group was not directed against any particular country and that Moscow remained open to cooperation worldwide. “We are in favor of our interests,” he said. Iran has backed efforts to build financial mechanisms less vulnerable to Western sanctions. Pezeshkian said Friday that expanding trade in members’ national currencies should be a priority, a position that reflects Tehran’s effort to limit the impact of sweeping U.S. economic restrictions and a blockade. For India, the summit is also a diplomatic balancing act. New Delhi maintains longstanding ties with Moscow and Tehran while seeking closer economic, defense and technology relationships with the United States and Europe. Modi met separately with Putin and Pezeshkian on Friday and has continued to call for dialogue and diplomacy in international conflicts. Modi and Xi are expected to meet later Saturday, a potentially important step in easing tensions that intensified after a border dispute between India and China escalated in 2020. India hopes the gathering can help consolidate that thaw while advancing its broader role as a bridge between competing global powers. The summit’s most immediate test may be whether leaders can agree on a joint statement. BRICS foreign ministers failed to reach consensus in May over the conflict involving Iran, leaving India to issue a chair’s summary instead. That disagreement underscored the challenge facing a bloc whose members share an interest in a more multipolar world but hold sharply different positions on war, sanctions and relations with the United States. The New Delhi meeting is taking place as fears grow that the Iran war, triggered by U.S.-Israeli strikes on Feb. 28, could widen amid escalating tensions between Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Indian authorities deployed thousands of police and paramilitary personnel around the summit site and elsewhere in the capital. Traffic restrictions and diversions were put in place during the leaders’ meeting.