Xi Jinping Arrives in India for BRICS Summit and Talks with Modi

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in New Delhi on Saturday for the BRICS summit, with a bilateral meeting scheduled with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the same day. The visit, Xi's first to India in seven years, is being viewed as an opportunity to inject fresh momentum into efforts to restore bilateral ties after a prolonged and tense military standoff along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh.

Ahead of the visit, Beijing struck a conciliatory note. China's Ambassador to India, Xu Feihong, said in a post on X that the two countries were arranging the bilateral meeting between Xi and Modi, and noted that this would mark the third consecutive year the two leaders have met, following their earlier interactions in Kazan and Tianjin.

Xu said China would work with India to act on the strategic guidance of the two leaders, approach bilateral relations from a strategic height and long-term perspective, step up communication, enhance cooperation and properly handle differences. He described the two countries as friends enjoying good neighbourliness and partners helping each other succeed.

Xi last visited India in October 2019, when he travelled to Mamallapuram near Chennai for an informal bilateral summit. Relations deteriorated sharply after the military standoff began in the summer of 2020.

Writing in Beijing, India's Ambassador to China, Vikram Doraiswami, said a stable, predictable and cooperative relationship between India and China was not only in the interest of their combined 2.8 billion people but also a significant factor for the credibility and effectiveness of BRICS as an action-oriented platform for emerging economies.

Doraiswami said there was reason for confidence, pointing to sustained engagement at the working level over the past year, complemented by high-level exchanges that have helped build trust and understanding between the two sides. This, he said, has translated into genuine cooperation on the ground.