Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in New Delhi on Saturday for a BRICS summit alongside leaders from India, Russia and Iran, as wars, trade and energy test the divided grouping.
The conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, along with global trade turbulence and energy security, are expected to dominate the two-day meeting of the 11-nation bloc.
But Xi’s visit will also be closely watched as his first to neighbouring India since 2019, and the biggest step yet in a cautious thaw between the nuclear-armed rivals.
His arrival comes six years after a deadly 2020 military clash along their disputed Tibetan border, with ties gradually improving through restored flights, visas and high-level contacts.
Beijing said Friday it was “ready to work with India… by strengthening communication, enhancing cooperation, and properly handling differences”.
The underlying territorial dispute remains unresolved, and both sides retain heavy military deployments along their roughly 3,500-kilometre (2,175-mile) high-altitude border along Tibet.
‘Substantial harvest’
Xi is due to hold face-to-face talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi later on Saturday, according to New Delhi’s foreign ministry.
“They are looking for ‘early and substantial harvest’ when it comes to the border issue,” said Pradeep Taneja, a China-India expert at the University of Melbourne.
“You cannot have a buildup of your forces on the border… but at the same time say ‘we should continue to have people-to-people relations and economic relationships.'”
Deep mistrust remains, with their contested Himalayan frontier, a widening trade deficit and strategic rivalry still complicating ties.
Dozens of Tibetans protested in New Delhi on Friday — exiles, like their Buddhist leader the Dalai Lama, who has lived in India since fleeing a Chinese crackdown in 1959 — waving placards against Xi’s visit.
Modi on Friday embraced Russian President Vladimir Putin before talks. Putin, who last visited India in December 2025, is one of New Delhi’s most important strategic partners.
India has navigated the energy crisis caused by the US-Iran war in part by turning to Russia, despite Moscow’s war in Ukraine and pressure from Washington and other Western capitals.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, also in New Delhi on Friday, said that pressure on Iran “has reached a critical and dangerous stage” following the “military aggression by the United States and Israel”.
Modi and Pezeshkian also held talks.
India maintains cordial relations with Iran and Israel, but is also careful to strike a delicate balance in its ties with Washington.
‘Big constraint’
BRICS was created in 2009 as a forum for major emerging economies seeking greater influence in institutions dominated by Western powers.
As well as Iran, BRICS includes Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — countries with sharply differing positions on the war launched by the United States and Israel in February.
UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi are also to attend.
Brazil is represented by Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira, with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva campaigning for a fourth term in October elections.
BRICS foreign ministers failed to agree on a joint statement when they met in New Delhi in May.
“The Gulf conflict is going to be the central fault line this time during the BRICS summit,” said Harsh V Pant of India’s Observer Research Foundation.
“What was seen until last year as an achievement — the expansion of BRICS — today looks like a big constraint on BRICS,” Pant said.
