Xi Jinping to visit India after 7 years, meet Modi at BRICS summit in Delhi

Chinese President Xi Jinping is coming to India to attend the 18th BRICS summit being held in New Delhi on September 12 and 13. China's foreign ministry has officially confirmed the visit, which is being seen as a major development for global politics.

This will be Xi Jinping's first visit to India since the violent military clash in Galwan Valley in Ladakh in 2020. Before that, Xi had visited India in October 2019 for the second India-China informal summit held in Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu. This means the Chinese president is set to visit India after a gap of nearly seven years.

According to a spokesperson for China's foreign ministry, President Xi Jinping will attend the summit on the special invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The summit will be held at Bharat Mandapam in Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. Diplomatic officials from both countries have not yet made the full agenda public, but there is a strong possibility of a separate bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Modi and President Xi Jinping during the summit.

Last year, Prime Minister Modi had visited China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit held in Tianjin. During that meeting, Modi had invited Xi Jinping to visit India for the 2026 BRICS summit. With tensions over the border dispute having eased to some extent, the two countries' leaders are now set to come face to face, and the meeting is being closely watched around the world.

Political and trade relations between India and China had become significantly tense after the Galwan incident, with both countries deploying heavy military forces at the border. However, several rounds of talks at the military and diplomatic levels over the past several months have led to efforts to normalise the situation at the border. In this context, the Chinese president's visit is being seen as a clear sign of a thaw and improving ties between the two countries. Experts say the meeting could see discussions on issues related to peace at the border, mutual trade and regional security.

The BRICS summit, being held under India's chairmanship, is being considered particularly significant. Along with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the heads of other member countries will also be present in person. BRICS is steadily growing more influential in the world's economy and politics. Currently, BRICS countries represent about 49 percent of the world's population (nearly 3.9 billion people), account for around 40 percent of global GDP, and make up more than 26 percent of global trade. There is no doubt that this historic summit in New Delhi will further increase BRICS's political and economic influence on the world stage.