Source Reuters
NEW DELHI — Chinese President Xi Jinping landed in the Indian capital on Saturday to attend the 18th BRICS Summit, ending a seven-year absence from Indian soil and setting the stage for pivotal bilateral discussions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi aimed at further stabilizing ties.
The Chinese leader was received at the airport by Union Minister Jitin Prasada, accompanied by cultural troupes performing traditional classical dances to mark his arrival. Xi arrived with a high-powered diplomatic entourage that includes Politburo Standing Committee member Cai Qi and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
The trip marks Xi’s first visit to India since the 2019 informal summit in Mamallapuram. Relations between the two Asian giants cooled considerably following the 2020 Galwan Valley clash and subsequent military standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). However, recent months have seen sustained diplomatic recalibration, highlighted by Special Representative talks between Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Wang Yi in Beijing, which paved the way for this weekend’s face-to-face engagements.
At the Bharat Mandapam convention center, the central summit venue, Prime Minister Modi opened proceedings by emphasizing that BRICS has reached a “coming of age” milestone celebrating two decades of the grouping. Modi stressed the need for consensus-based multilateral cooperation, reform in global governance bodies such as the UN Security Council, and elevating the Global South from mere rule-followers to active rule-shapers.
On the sidelines of the multilateral forum, the Modi-Xi bilateral dialogue centers on:
Border Stability: Reviewing ongoing disengagement and confidence-building protocols across the LAC to sustain peace and tranquility.
Economic Normalization: Evaluating avenues for easing cross-border trade, investment restrictions, and supply-chain cooperation.
Multilateral Coordination: Addressing common priorities within BRICS and the Global South, including national currency settlements, technology exchange, and climate finance.
With major emerging economies gathered in Delhi against the backdrop of wider geopolitical conflicts in West Asia and Eastern Europe, the Modi-Xi engagement stands as one of the summit’s most closely watched diplomatic developments. Both sides will test whether strategic dialogue can transform hard-won border stabilization into durable, long-term cooperation.
