Xi Jinping Visits Delhi for the First Time in Ten Years for BRICS Summit

Chinese President Xi Jinping is visiting Delhi for the 18th BRICS summit, marking his first trip to the Indian capital since 2014. He and Prime Minister Narendra Modi last met in 2019. This meeting follows a prolonged crisis triggered by the 2020 clashes in the Galwan Valley, which resulted in military fatalities on both sides.

The visit includes bilateral talks centered on the ongoing border dispute. On August 25 in Beijing, India's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi signed an eight-point joint statement to establish a framework for a mutually acceptable resolution.

Former Indian Ambassador to China Ashok Kanth suggests the leaders may discuss reviving the Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED). This macroeconomic coordination mechanism has been inactive since 2019. Bali Deepak, a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, argues that restarting the SED is necessary to stabilize relations, regardless of how long the final border settlement takes.

Beijing is utilizing the BRICS summit to pursue three specific objectives: implementing cross-border payment rules in national currencies to reduce reliance on the U.S. dollar, expanding the list of countries receiving "green" infrastructure funding through the New Development Bank (NDB), and adopting a unified security document to increase the bloc's influence on global governance.

India's stance on these goals varies. While Delhi supports the expansion of the NDB for investment reasons, it resists full dedollarization within BRICS. India aims to maintain its relationship with Washington and fears that a dominant Chinese yuan would grant Beijing greater economic control over the bloc's trade partners.

The proposed security document faces the most resistance. India is unwilling to support Chinese efforts to displace the U.S. as a global leader. Ashok Kanth notes that BRICS is not a security platform and should not be used by members to advance individual geopolitical strategies.

Qian Feng, Director of the Tsinghua Institute of Strategy, states that current partial successes—such as improved border control and the resumption of border trade—must now be converted into institutional agreements to prevent local conflicts from blocking the overall trend toward reduced tension.