Xi Jinping Set to End Seven-Year Absence From India With Massive Delegation

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A Long-Awaited Return

Chinese President Xi Jinping appears set to attend the BRICS summit in New Delhi on September 12 and 13, according to three Indian government sources cited by Reuters. If confirmed, it would be Xi's first trip to India in seven years.

Indian officials say Chinese diplomats are already working out logistics. One source with direct knowledge told Reuters that Chinese officials are busy arranging hotels and security details for the visit.

Neither government has officially confirmed the trip. China's foreign ministry said only that Beijing supports India's hosting of this year's summit, adding that it currently has no further details to share. India's foreign ministry declined to comment.

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A Bigger Delegation Than Ever Before

Two sources told Reuters that Xi is expected to bring around 400 officials with him — more than double the fewer than 200 who traveled with him during his last visit in 2019. That scale alone signals how much weight Beijing is placing on the trip.

Officials from both sides are reportedly hoping to use the summit to widen cooperation, even as unresolved border and security disputes continue to weigh on the relationship. Any bilateral meeting between Xi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not yet been finalized, according to the sources.

Xi skipped last year's BRICS summit in Brazil altogether. His decision to attend this year, should it be confirmed, would mark a notable shift in engagement.

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Background: A Relationship Scarred by Galwan

India and China share one of the world's longest disputed borders — roughly 3,800 kilometers through the Himalayas, much of it never formally demarcated. Relations broke down after violent clashes in the Galwan Valley in June 2020, in which 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese troops were killed. It was the deadliest confrontation between the two nuclear-armed powers in decades and triggered a four-year military standoff.

The two sides only reached a disengagement agreement in October 2024, according to reporting from the China-Global South Project, a research and analysis outlet. Since then, ties have improved only gradually. Modi traveled to China in 2025 for his own first visit in seven years, but a fresh flare-up over the border has since tested the fragile progress.

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Fresh Tensions Ahead of the Summit

Indian and Chinese army patrols reportedly came face-to-face in late July near a remote stretch of the border, prompting India to state publicly this month that border peace remains essential to the relationship.

Against that backdrop, India's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval traveled to Beijing this week for the 25th round of special-representative talks on the boundary dispute. According to India TV News, Doval was scheduled to meet Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on August 25 to discuss the Line of Actual Control, troop deployments and overall bilateral relations. Republic World reported that the talks come amid fresh accusations of incursions by China's People's Liberation Army into Indian-administered Arunachal Pradesh — a region Beijing continues to claim as its own territory, a position India firmly rejects.

The Chinese Communist Party's willingness to press territorial claims even while pursuing diplomatic normalization illustrates a pattern critics have long pointed to: Beijing tends to combine conciliatory public messaging with continued pressure on the ground.

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Outlook: A Summit Shaped by Washington, Too

One factor pulling India and China closer, paradoxically, is Washington. According to Reuters, U.S. President Donald Trump's trade policies have given Beijing and New Delhi a shared interest in not letting outside pressure fracture the BRICS grouping. Neither government wants to appear divided in the face of American trade leverage, even as their own disputes remain unresolved.

Whether Xi's visit ultimately happens — and what, if anything, it produces on the border question — will be one of the clearest signals yet of where the India-China relationship is actually headed. For now, both sides appear to be betting that showing up matters more than resolving their differences beforehand.

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Sources:

1. Reuters — https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinas-xi-likely-visit-india-with-big-delegation-first-time-seven-years-2026-08-24/
2. India TV News — https://www.indiatvnews.com/news/india/nsa-ajit-doval-to-visit-beijing-for-india-china-border-talks-with-foreign-minister-wang-yi-latest-updates-2026-08-23-1052212
3. Republic World — https://www.republicworld.com/india/nsa-ajit-doval-set-for-beijing-trip-for-crucial-talks-with-chinese-foreign-minister-wang-yi-ahead-of-xi-jinping-india-visit-2026-08-23-135415
4. China-Global South Project — https://chinaglobalsouth.com/analysis/xi-india-brics-summit-china-modi/

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