Chinese President Xi Jinping has left Beijing en route to New Delhi to attend a BRICS summit, alongside leaders from India, Russia and Iran, as wars, trade and energy test the divided grouping.
Xi departed on Saturday for the 18th BRICS summit at the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua reported. His entourage includes Foreign Minister Wang Yi and high-ranking Chinese Communist Party official Cai Qi.
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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.
Xi’s visit, his first to India since 2019, will also be closely watched as the biggest step yet in the cautious thaw between the nuclear-armed rivals.
The trip 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.
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.
Beijing said on Friday that it was “ready to work with India … by strengthening communication, enhancing cooperation, and properly handling differences”.
Xi is due to hold face-to-face talks with Modi later on Saturday, according to India’s Ministry of External Affairs.
“They are looking for ‘early and substantial harvest’ when it comes to the border issue,” Pradeep Taneja, a China-India expert at the University of Melbourne, said, as reported by the AFP news agency. “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, however, with their contested Himalayan frontier, a widening trade deficit and strategic rivalry still complicating ties.
Dozens of Tibetans living in exile, like their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, protested in New Delhi on Friday, waving placards against Xi’s visit.
The Russian and Iranian presidents arrived in the Indian capital on Friday for the summit.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin held talks with Modi on Friday and agreed to further strengthen the “special” relationship between their countries.
During a meeting with Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, Modi underscored the need to protect freedom of navigation and commerce, as well as the safety and wellbeing of ships’ crews.
India has navigated the energy crisis caused by the United States-Iran war in part by turning to Russia, despite Moscow’s war in Ukraine and pressure from Washington and other Western capitals.
BRICS was created in 2009 as a forum for major emerging economies seeking greater influence in institutions dominated by Western powers.
