Xi Jinping Likely to Attend BRICS Summit in New Delhi, First India Visit in Seven Years

Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to attend the BRICS summit in New Delhi next month, three sources familiar with the planning told Reuters. The visit would be Xi’s first to India in seven years and would come with a large official delegation of roughly 400 people—more than double the size of the group that accompanied him in 2019.

India hosts the summit on 12–13 September. Xi’s presence would be watched less for the formal BRICS agenda than for what it signals about the state of relations after the deadly border clashes of 2020 and more recent diplomatic friction. Both sides have been working, cautiously, to stabilise the frontier and reopen channels of communication.

Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval arrived in Beijing on Monday for the 25th round of Special Representatives talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Those discussions are scheduled for Tuesday and form part of the broader effort to keep the border quiet ahead of the summit.

China’s Foreign Ministry has said Beijing attaches great importance to BRICS cooperation and supports India’s chairmanship, but has declined to confirm Xi’s travel plans. Officials on both sides are still finalising logistics, security protocols and any possible bilateral meetings.

A successful visit would not erase the deep structural disagreements over the Line of Actual Control or regional influence. It would, however, underline that both capitals see value in managed engagement even while rivalry continues. For New Delhi the optics of hosting Xi on Indian soil after years of tension would itself be a diplomatic marker.