Modi-Xi Jinping meeting: Border ties, trade on the agenda as Chinese President gears up for India visit

Chinese President Xi Jinping will arrive in India on Saturday for the BRICS Summit, marking his first visit to the country in seven years, with a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi expected to focus on the next phase of stabilising India-China ties.

Xi's 24-hour visit comes as the two countries attempt to build on border ties that began after the Modi-Xi meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Kazan in 2024, following years of strained relations after the 2020 eastern Ladakh military standoff.

The Chinese President is scheduled to attend the September 12-13 BRICS Summit in New Delhi at PM Modi's invitation. His bilateral meeting with the Indian prime minister is likely to take place on Saturday evening, diplomatic sources told Sachin Parashar of The Times of India.


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Xi will be accompanied by a 67-member government delegation, including Cai Qi, a member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China Politburo and one of Xi's closest aides, as well as Foreign Minister Wang Yi, according to the report. A separate business delegation is also expected to arrive for the visit.

The meeting between the two leaders is expected to reinforce the positive momentum in bilateral ties since their Kazan meeting, while addressing the unresolved issues that continue to define the relationship.

For India, the agenda is expected to centre on fair market access, supply chain reliability and the need to address the widening imbalance in bilateral trade as the two sides seek to expand economic cooperation.

PM Modi is also expected to underline New Delhi's position that peace and tranquillity along the border remain critical to the broader development of ties.

India and China had agreed in Kazan to restart high-level engagement after disengagement and resolution of issues related to the eastern Ladakh military standoff. The two leaders had asked their Special Representatives on the boundary question to oversee the management of peace and tranquillity in border areas and explore a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable solution to the boundary dispute.

Since then, the Special Representatives have held three rounds of boundary talks. Their latest meeting in August resulted in eight outcomes, including a decision to finalise terms of reference for an "early and substantial harvest" on boundary delimitation and border management.

The Modi-Xi meeting will therefore be closely watched for indications of whether the two sides can move beyond stabilising the relationship and begin setting out a more durable framework for managing both their border dispute and growing economic engagement.

Sources familiar with India-China ties have maintained that the state of the border will continue to determine the state of the broader bilateral relationship. While the Line of Actual Control has been largely incident-free over the past year, progress towards improving the overall health of ties has remained slow but steady.

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Five things to know about the India-China relationship

• The border remains the central issue: The 2020 clash in eastern Ladakh transformed bilateral ties. While disengagement and new patrolling arrangements have helped stabilise the situation, the underlying boundary dispute remains unresolved.
• Trade is growing, but the imbalance is widening: China is India's largest trading partner, but the relationship remains heavily tilted towards Beijing. India's imports from China far exceed its exports, making trade balance and market access key issues for New Delhi.
• Partners in multilateral forums: India and China work together in BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, but remain strategic competitors. India's ties with the US and participation in the Quad, as well as China's close relationship with Pakistan, continue to complicate the relationship.
• Confidence-building measures are slowly returning: Since 2024, the two sides have moved to restore high-level contacts, ease visas, revive border-related exchanges and resume direct flights after more than five years.
• This visit is a test of the thaw: Xi's visit signals a willingness on both sides to maintain a working relationship. But deep mistrust remains, and any significant improvement will depend on whether the progress on stabilising ties is matched by movement on the border and other substantive concerns.

(With inputs from TOI)