NEW DELHI — Chinese President Xi Jinping has arrived in India for a closely watched BRICS summit where wars, energy security, trade tensions and the fragile China-India relationship are expected to dominate discussions.
Xi’s visit to New Delhi on September 12 marks his first trip to India since 2019 and comes at a particularly sensitive moment for the world’s emerging economies.
The two-day BRICS summit, being hosted by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 12 and 13, brings together leaders from an expanded group that includes China, India, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Brazil and South Africa.
But behind the diplomatic handshakes is a bloc facing deep divisions over the wars in Iran and Ukraine, energy disruptions and growing competition between major powers.
Xi-Modi meeting becomes a major focus
One of the most closely watched moments of the summit will be the expected face-to-face meeting between Xi and Modi.
China and India have been cautiously rebuilding relations following the deadly 2020 border confrontation in the Galwan Valley, which killed at least 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese troops.
The confrontation triggered years of diplomatic and economic tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.
Since then, however, both governments have taken steps toward a cautious thaw. A disengagement agreement reached in October 2024 helped reduce tensions in disputed areas, while direct flights, business visas and other people-to-people links have gradually resumed.
Still, the underlying territorial dispute remains unresolved.
The two countries continue to maintain substantial military forces along their roughly 3,500-kilometer disputed Himalayan frontier, meaning any diplomatic progress remains vulnerable to renewed tensions.
Beijing has signaled that it wants to improve relations.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said China is prepared to approach ties with India from a strategic and long-term perspective, strengthen communication and cooperation, and properly manage differences.
For Modi, however, closer engagement with Beijing does not mean abandoning India’s strategic autonomy.
BRICS faces an even bigger problem
The China-India relationship is only one challenge facing the expanded BRICS grouping.
The bloc is meeting against the backdrop of the continuing Ukraine war and a major Middle East conflict involving Iran, the United States and Israel.
Iran is now a BRICS member, while the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are also part of the expanded grouping—countries whose interests and positions on the regional conflict do not always align.
That has created a difficult diplomatic problem for BRICS, which traditionally seeks consensus among its members.
BRICS foreign ministers failed to issue a joint statement after their May meeting in New Delhi, highlighting how difficult it has become for the enlarged group to find common ground.
Analysts say the very expansion that has increased BRICS’ global influence may also be making consensus harder.
The New York Times similarly reported that China and India are competing for influence within BRICS, with Beijing viewing the organization as a vehicle for challenging American power while India is seeking to keep the grouping broad enough to avoid being forced into a binary choice between Washington and Beijing.
Modi walks a diplomatic tightrope
Modi’s position is particularly complicated.
India has maintained strong strategic ties with Russia while simultaneously developing closer relations with the United States and other Western economies.
On September 11, Modi held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in New Delhi, with trade, energy and defense expected to feature prominently.
India remains one of the world’s major buyers of Russian oil, and Russian crude accounted for a record 51 percent of India’s crude imports in July 2026, according to reporting cited by CNA.
At the same time, India has repeatedly said the Ukraine conflict should be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy.
The country’s strategy reflects its longstanding policy of maintaining strategic autonomy rather than formally aligning itself with one major power bloc.
China remains economically important to India
Despite the political and military tensions, China remains a critical economic partner for India.
Reuters reported that China became India’s largest source of imports in the 2025-26 fiscal year, with Indian purchases of Chinese goods reaching about $132 billion.
That economic relationship creates another incentive for both sides to stabilize ties even as disagreements over territory, trade and regional security remain unresolved.
The trade relationship is also deeply imbalanced, with India seeking greater access to Chinese markets and a reduction in its large trade deficit.
That means the Xi-Modi meeting could extend well beyond symbolic diplomacy.
A bigger test for BRICS
The summit comes at a moment when BRICS is trying to establish itself as an influential voice for the Global South while avoiding becoming simply an anti-Western alliance.
India has pushed for practical cooperation, including greater connectivity between members’ payment systems.
Reuters reported that New Delhi is advocating greater integration of central bank digital currencies among BRICS members to facilitate cross-border payments, although political, technical and financial obstacles remain significant.
That initiative illustrates the broader challenge facing BRICS: members may agree on reducing dependence on Western-dominated systems, but they do not necessarily agree on how far that cooperation should go—or how the bloc should respond to major geopolitical conflicts.
The stakes for Xi and Modi
For Xi, the summit provides an opportunity to strengthen China’s role in BRICS while improving relations with India.
For Modi, it is a chance to demonstrate that India can engage simultaneously with China, Russia, Iran, the Gulf states and Western powers without surrendering its strategic independence.
But the unresolved Himalayan border dispute, India’s trade deficit with China, the Ukraine war and the conflict involving Iran and the United States could expose the limits of that diplomatic balancing act.
The most important question may therefore not be whether Xi and Modi can shake hands.
It is whether their countries can convert the current thaw into lasting cooperation while their strategic rivalry remains unresolved.
And as BRICS grows larger, the summit could reveal whether the grouping’s growing influence will make it a stronger global force—or make reaching agreement even more difficult.
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