Xi Jinping to attend BRICS summit in first visit to India since 2019

Chinese President Xi Jinping will travel to India this weekend for the 18th BRICS Summit, Beijing has announced, in what would be his first visit to the country since 2019.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said President Xi would attend the leaders’ meeting in New Delhi on 12–13 September at the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. India holds the rotating chair of the expanded grouping this year.

The announcement comes two days before the summit opens at Bharat Mandapam, the same convention complex that hosted the G20 in 2023. It will be Mr Xi’s first trip to India since an informal summit with PM Modi in Mamallapuram in 2019.

Relations between the two Asian giants deteriorated sharply after deadly clashes in the Galwan Valley in 2020. Since then the two leaders have met on the sidelines of other gatherings, including last year’s Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in China.

The New Delhi meeting is expected to include a one-on-one bilerate between PM Modi and Chinese President Xi. Officials on both sides have spent months trying to stabilise the relationship: border talks have continued, some direct flights have resumed and limited border trade has restarted.

BRICS now has 11 full members: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. India has framed its chairmanship around the theme “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability”. The agenda is expected to cover supply chains, trade finance, use of national currencies, digital public infrastructure, energy and food security, and reform of global institutions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has already confirmed he will attend. South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian, Egypt’s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Ethiopia’s Abiy Ahmed and Indonesia’s Prabowo Subianto are also expected. Brazil will be represented at foreign minister level because of domestic elections. UN Secretary-General António Guterres is among invited international guests.

Collectively, BRICS members account for nearly half the world’s population and about two-fifths of global output measured by purchasing power. India has been careful to present the forum as a development-oriented platform for the Global South rather than an anti-Western bloc.