Xi Departs for New Delhi as BRICS Summit Opens
Chinese President Xi Jinping left Beijing by special plane on the morning of September 12 for New Delhi, at the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to attend the 18th BRICS Leaders’ Summit, Xinhua reported. The two-day summit, hosted by India as the 2026 BRICS chair, opens the same day and marks 20 years since the group’s founding.
Xi is accompanied by Cai Qi, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee and director of the CPC Central Committee General Office, and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, among other officials, according to Xinhua.
A Bilateral in the Spotlight
A centerpiece of the trip is a planned meeting between Xi and Modi — the two leaders’ third consecutive annual encounter, following Kazan in October 2024 and Tianjin in August 2025. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning confirmed on September 11 that the two sides were arranging the bilateral, state media reported.
“China is willing to work with India, under the strategic guidance of the two leaders, to grasp China-India relations from a strategic height and long-term perspective, strengthen communication, enhance cooperation, properly handle differences, and be good-neighborly friends and partners who help each other succeed,” Mao said.
The planned meeting builds on a steady stabilization of ties since the 2020 Galwan Valley border clash. Mao described BRICS as “today’s most important platform for unity and cooperation among emerging markets and developing countries,” adding that member states have become “a veritable first echelon of the Global South.”
An Expanded Bloc at 20
Founded in 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India and China — with South Africa joining in 2010 — BRICS has since expanded to roughly 20 members and partner countries across Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. Indonesia became the 10th full member in January 2025, the first from Southeast Asia.
India’s chairmanship theme — “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability” — frames the summit agenda, with the four priorities running through the bloc’s political-security, economic-financial, and cultural and people-to-people pillars. New Delhi has placed particular emphasis on emerging-technology cooperation (artificial intelligence, quantum computing, biotechnology) and on unlocking trade among members through the “BRICS Economic Partnership Strategy 2030,” The Paper reported.
Economic ties already run deep. China’s trade with other BRICS members reached 7.47 trillion yuan in 2025, up 3.4 percent year-on-year and accounting for 16.4 percent of China’s total foreign trade, while the number of Chinese firms with import-export records with BRICS partners topped 300,000 for the first time, CCTV News reported.
India’s Changing Role
Analysts see India’s chairmanship as a notable shift. Lin Minwang, deputy dean of the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University, told The Paper that one highlight of the summit may be a display of unity.
“In past summits, India — even if not exactly a ‘troublemaker’ — at least blocked some BRICS agendas; but this time India is the chair, so its enthusiasm and initiative have changed considerably,” Lin said.
He added that observers should watch for whether the summit produces “impactful agreements or outcomes — for example, de-Americanization policy measures, or language more restrainedly condemning the US over the Middle East situation.” Such language, he said, now has “a somewhat higher” chance of passing, as India — historically reluctant to criticize US hegemony — has often blocked common positions in the past.
On the China-India track, Qian Feng, a researcher at Tsinghua University’s National Strategy Institute, pointed to the 25th Special Representatives meeting on the boundary question held on August 25. He said the change from the previous meeting was that directional consensus is now being translated into concrete mechanisms — China-India border talks are moving “from ‘building the framework’ to ‘digging into details.’”
What to Watch
The summit unfolds against a backdrop of competing pressures. Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian are both expected to attend, per statements from their governments cited by The Paper. The meeting also tests whether “Greater BRICS” can move from simply getting bigger to getting more substantive: members hold divergent positions on conflicts in West Asia, Gaza and the Red Sea, and a May foreign ministers’ meeting produced a chair’s statement rather than a joint one.
For Beijing, the New Delhi gathering is a chance to advance its vision of a more multipolar order and to deepen ties with the Global South. For India, it is an opportunity to demonstrate that an expanded BRICS can deliver practical cooperation — and to keep its relations with Beijing on an even keel.
Much will hinge on the Xi-Modi bilateral and on whether the summit’s closing documents strike language that all members can accept. The outcome will shape the trajectory of a bloc that now represents a large share of the world’s population and economy — and offer an early signal of whether “Greater BRICS” can convert scale into substance.