Xi to Attend BRICS Summit in India, First Visit in 7 Years

Chinese President Xi Jinping will travel to New Delhi for the 18th BRICS Summit on September 12-13, at the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to Xinhua News. The visit will be Xi’s first trip to India in seven years, placing the Chinese leader at the centre of a summit that India is hosting for the fourth time and that arrives amid a fragile diplomatic thaw between the world’s two most populous nations.

“At the invitation of Prime Minister of the Republic of India Narendra Modi, President Xi Jinping will attend the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi from September 12 to 13,” China’s Foreign Ministry said in its official announcement on September 10. Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, arrived in New Delhi on Friday for a three-day visit, according to India Today, marking his first in-person BRICS summit outside Russia since the war in Ukraine began in February 2022.

A Summit at a Turning Point

The gathering convenes at Bharat Mandapam, the sprawling complex that hosted the 2023 G20 summit, under a theme India has framed for its 2026 chairship: “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability” — a slogan that organisers say reflects a people-centric vision rooted in “Humanity First.” India assumed the BRICS chairship on January 1, 2026, and has since organised more than 350 meetings and high-level engagements across 25-plus cities. 2026 also marks 20 years since the grouping was established.

The host’s political stakes are matched by the summit’s structural importance. Post-expansion BRICS now counts 11 member states — Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the UAE — alongside 10 partner countries. Together they represent nearly half the world’s population, around 30 percent of global GDP, and roughly one-fifth of world trade.

A Fragile Thaw Between Giants

The summit unfolds against an uneven recovery in China-India relations. A brief border war in 1962 set a wary tone; ties then collapsed after the June 2020 Galwan Valley clash killed 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers. Relations have warmed since Modi visited China in 2025, and a meeting between the two leaders earlier this month on the sidelines of a regional forum in Kyrgyzstan has added to the sense of momentum. On August 25, the 25th round of Special Representatives’ talks on the boundary question produced an 8-point consensus that both sides described as a positive signal.

“In the context of the warming of China-India relations, this visit will further promote the improvement and development of China-India relations,” Qian Feng, director of the Research Department at Tsinghua University’s National Strategy Institute, told the Global Times.

Mohammed Saqib, CEO of the India China Economic & Cultural Council, told the same outlet that Xi’s visit “has significantly raised the importance of the BRICS Summit,” adding that “if the two countries work together, the impact will extend far beyond their bilateral relationship.”

Shubhajit Roy, senior diplomatic editor at The Indian Express, described the visit as “very significant,” but noted that rebuilding trust remains “a work in progress” that “will not happen overnight.” Multilateral platforms such as BRICS, he said, offer both sides space to better understand each other’s concerns.

Diplomacy Advances, Business Lags

If the political temperature has risen, the economic relationship remains cooler. As Republic World reported, citing Reuters, businesses on both sides continue to face regulatory hurdles, visa delays and restrictions on industrial equipment — a gap between diplomatic progress and commercial reality.

In March, India eased some restrictions on Chinese investment imposed after the 2020 border clashes, relaxing rules in electronics, capital goods and solar cells, and has since approved several projects, including a manufacturing venture between Dixon Technologies and Chinese smartphone maker Vivo. But leading Chinese vehicle makers BYD and Great Wall Motor have shelved planned investments after facing heightened scrutiny, and New Delhi has declined to approve an Alipay payments-link proposal on national security grounds while weighing a recommendation to investigate Xiaomi.

In the other direction, Chinese customs have held up solar, electronics and port equipment, with some tunnel boring machines for Indian infrastructure projects delayed for more than a year. Ajay Srivastava, founder of the Global Trade Research Initiative, told Republic World that the hold-ups “reflect more than administrative friction” and signal China’s willingness to use India’s trade and technology dependence as leverage.

Fudan University’s Lin Minwang struck a cautious note: “China certainly wants to improve ties, but we are waiting to see to what extent India is actually willing to improve them.”

A Platform for the Global South

Beyond the bilateral dynamic, the summit is expected to focus on the group’s collective agenda. Qian highlighted financial cooperation — local currency settlement and cross-border digital payments — as a likely centrepiece, alongside reform of multilateral financial institutions such as the IMF and World Bank, expansion of the New Development Bank’s business and coverage, energy transition and green finance, and possible common positions on AI governance and food security.

A central test will be whether the enlarged bloc can reach consensus on membership questions while safeguarding its unity and keeping economic cooperation as its priority — a balancing act whose outcome will shape how effective BRICS proves as a pillar of global governance.

Harsh Pant, vice president at the Observer Research Foundation, told Republic World that the “trust deficit” between China and India remains high, but suggested that China “has economic heft and there is a good opportunity to use that and emerge as a reliable partner, especially when both nations are impacted by America’s trade policies.” That overlap of external pressure, analysts say, may give both capitals reason to convert diplomatic goodwill into tangible economic progress.

What to Watch

For all the symbolism, the summit’s value will be measured in concrete outcomes: whether Xi and Modi hold a substantive bilateral meeting, whether the thaw translates into movement on stalled investments and visas, and whether the expanded BRICS can agree on a forward agenda that preserves both its cohesion and its economic focus.

As leaders gather in New Delhi, the world’s two most populous nations have a rare opportunity to demonstrate that warmer words can be matched by warmer commerce. Whether they seize it — and whether a bigger BRICS can speak with one voice — will define the grouping’s next decade.