Xi Jinping Arrives in India for BRICS Summit as China Urges 'Strategic, Long-Term' View of Ties

China said on Friday that it is willing to work with India to handle their relationship “from a strategic height and long-term perspective”, a day ahead of President Xi Jinping’s arrival in New Delhi for his first visit to India in seven years.

Mr. Xi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold talks on Saturday (September 12) on the sidelines of this week’s BRICS summit in the Indian capital. It will be the third year in a row that the two leaders have met, following their meetings in Kazan and Tianjin.

“China will work with India to act on the strategic guidance of the two leaders, handle bilateral relations from a strategic height and long-term perspective, step up communication and enhance cooperation, properly handle differences, and be friends enjoying good neighbourliness and partners helping each other,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters.

Ms. Mao said Mr. Xi would use the summit to “put forward China’s important initiatives and propositions, charting the course for greater BRICS cooperation”.

She described the grouping as “a key platform for emerging market developing countries to uphold solidarity and cooperation”, adding that its members had “upheld the spirit of openness, inclusiveness and win-win cooperation”, stayed committed to multilateralism, fairness and justice, and the pursuit of common development.

“BRICS has grown into a real force standing at the forefront of the Global South,” she said.

In China, the visit is being viewed as an opportunity both to continue the gradual normalisation of bilateral relations and to deepen cooperation within the wider BRICS framework, according to commentary in the state-run press.

“One of the biggest highlights will be [President] Xi’s trip to India after seven years,” Wang Youming, an expert on China’s relations with developing countries at the China Institute of International Studies, was quoted as saying in the official China Daily on Friday.

“China and India are not only close neighbours but also founding members and major participants in BRICS. The state of their relationship has a direct bearing on the development of the mechanism,” he said. “Multilateral platforms can create opportunities for bilateral engagement, while improving bilateral relations can, in turn, facilitate coordination within multilateral mechanisms.”

Background to the talks

Ties between the two countries deteriorated sharply after the clash in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh in 2020, which left casualties on both sides and led to a prolonged military standoff along the Line of Actual Control. Diplomatic and military channels have since worked towards disengagement at several points, and contacts at the political level have resumed.

Mr. Modi and Mr. Xi met on the margins of the BRICS summit in Kazan in 2024 — their first structured talks in five years — and again at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin in 2025. Both sides have framed those meetings as steps towards stabilising the relationship while acknowledging that differences remain.

BRICS, once made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, has widened in recent years, with new members joining as the grouping positions itself as a voice for developing economies on issues ranging from trade to climate finance.

What to watch

Neither side has publicly announced a detailed bilateral agenda beyond Saturday’s leaders’ meeting, and officials have not said whether any agreements will be signed. The talks are expected to cover the state of the border situation, trade and people-to-people exchanges, along with coordination within BRICS.

Chinese statements have emphasised communication and the “proper handling” of differences, language that both capitals have used in recent years to signal a preference for managing disputes rather than allowing them to define the relationship.

For India, the summit also brings together a grouping whose members do not always share the same positions on global issues, even as they converge on calls for a greater say for the Global South in international institutions.

Further details of the leaders’ discussions are expected after Saturday’s meeting.