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Chinese President Xi Jinping will travel to India later this week to attend the 18th BRICS Summit, his first trip to the country in 7 years, and what promises to be the most significant two-day bilateral visit for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Asia this year.
The summit is scheduled to take place in New Delhi on September 12-13. The possibility of a Modi-Xi meeting cannot be ruled out, as both countries are trying to improve relations after a rough patch following a violent clash on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh in 2020 that claimed the lives of 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers.
Since then, Modi and Xi Jinping have been trying to rebuild their engagement. They met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kazan in October 2024. Modi also traveled to China in September 2025. The two leaders met again at the SCO summit in Kyrgyzstan in August 2025.
Meeting on Indian soil with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who will also be arriving for the BRICS Summit, would carry significant weight — with Modi hosting two of Asia's largest powers at his home.
While China continues to dispute India's claim over the Line of Actual Control in the Himalayas, New Delhi has maintained that better ties with Beijing would depend on peace on the border. Beijing insists the boundary question should not dominate the entire relationship.
Trade tells a different story entirely. In recent years, the volume of commerce between China and India has hit record highs. Both governments recognize that economic decoupling would impose severe costs on both sides.
The BRICS Summit in New Delhi is part of the alternative global architecture championed by Beijing and Moscow alongside India, Brazil, South Africa, and a growing roster of new members. Since its inception, BRICS has expanded significantly and become a key platform for India to project its status as a swing power — tilted toward the US and the Quad, yet able to host both the Chinese and Russian presidents at the same table.
For the US, this summit is a powerful reminder of the fluid global alignment inherited by Trump and how different it is from the Cold War's simple binary framework. Modi's India is not choosing to take sides between Washington and Beijing — instead, it is opting for maximum global influence.
