New Delhi: Chinese President Xi Jinping is likely to visit India in September to attend the 18th BRICS summit to be hosted by India. This is the first time a Chinese president is visiting India since the 2020 Galwan Valley clash and the Line of Actual Control (LAC) military standoff, and the visit is being described as a historic one in bilateral diplomacy.
BRICS summit in New Delhi on September 12-13: India has assumed the BRICS presidency for 2026, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already sent an official invitation to Xi Jinping. This time the summit will be held on September 12 and 13 at Bharat Mantapam in New Delhi, and apart from Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pjeshkian will also participate.
Mamallapuram Summit: Xi Jinping last visited India in October 2019 for the second informal summit in Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu. Ups and downs in relations: Within 6 months of that visit, the Chinese military’s encroachment on the Ladakh border and the Galwan clash had brought the relationship between the two countries to its lowest point in the last six decades.
A step towards peace: Prime Minister Modi and Xi Jinping had held bilateral talks during the SCO summits in Kazan, Russia, in October 2024 and Tianjin, China, in August 2025, and agreed to de-escalate the border standoff.
Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri visited Beijing in late July to prepare for the Chinese president’s visit. A team of senior Chinese security officials also arrived in New Delhi to conduct security reviews. This is the most important summit being held in an expanded format since the addition of Iran, the UAE, Egypt and Ethiopia in 2024. The summit has drawn global attention amid the Middle East conflict and global trade crises.