- First visit in seven years. Xi Jinping is expected to arrive in New Delhi with a delegation of around 400 officials for the 18th BRICS Summit on September 12–13, marking his first trip to India since 2019.
- Border talks yield progress. On August 25, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi concluded the 25th round of Special Representatives talks in Beijing with an eight-point consensus, shifting toward a sector-wise approach to resolving the Line of Actual Control dispute.
- Diplomatic reset, carefully managed. Both governments are navigating what officials describe as a delicate balancing act — stabilising ties without appearing to capitulate to domestic audiences still wary from the 2020 Galwan Valley clash.
When Xi Jinping touches down in New Delhi next week, it will be the first time in seven years that China’s leader has set foot on Indian soil. The occasion — the 18th BRICS Summit — carries significance far beyond the multilateral agenda. For both Beijing and New Delhi, the visit is the culmination of a quiet diplomatic effort to pull two nuclear-armed neighbours back from the edge of an extended standoff.
Border Talks Clear the Way
The diplomatic groundwork came together on August 25 in Beijing, where NSA Doval and Wang Yi held the 25th round of India-China Special Representatives’ talks on the boundary question. The session produced an eight-point consensus — a notably detailed outcome — that analysts described as an “early and substantial harvest,” proposing a sector-wise rather than package approach to resolving competing claims along the Himalayan frontier.
Wang Yi said the talks were “very in-depth and candid” and expressed hope the round would help reach “new consensus.” Doval also met Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, underscoring the breadth of engagement on the Indian side. According to Business Standard, the meeting took place against a backdrop of renewed tensions along Arunachal Pradesh but ended in language that both sides described as constructive.
Xi’s Delegation and What It Signals
Reports from Semafor and Indian media indicate that Xi will be accompanied by roughly 400 officials — an unusually large delegation for a multilateral summit, and one that reflects the bilateral weight both sides are placing on the encounter alongside the formal BRICS proceedings. Beijing has not yet issued a formal confirmation of Xi’s travel, a standard practice before state visits, but logistical preparations inside India reportedly moved forward through the final days of August.
The summit itself will bring together the expanded BRICS membership — now including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Iran — and the agenda covers trade settlement in local currencies, a BRICS development bank capital raise, and coordination on global governance reform. Xi is expected to use the gathering to project China’s continued leadership of the Global South grouping.
What Modi Will Want
For Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the summit offers a chance to host a high-profile multilateral event and to demonstrate that India can manage its complex geometry with Beijing without compromising its ties with Washington or Moscow. Modi met Xi on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Bishkek earlier this year, an encounter that set the table for the more substantive bilateral engagement now taking shape in New Delhi.
India has insisted throughout the post-Galwan normalisation process that military disengagement must precede any political breakthrough. The August 25 border consensus, if it holds, represents the clearest signal yet that both sides believe the conditions for a genuine reset are finally within reach.