China confirms Xi to visit India after 7 year gap; trade, normalisation on agenda

Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and his Indian counterpart Piyush Goyal will be holding discussions on the sidelines of the event

Updated - September 10, 2026 07:06 pm IST - Beijing

Chinese President Xi Jinping with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia on October 23, 2024. | Photo Credit: Reuters

China announced on Thursday (September 10, 2026) that President Xi Jinping will attend the BRICS Summit in New Delhi on September 12 and 13, on what will be his first visit to India in almost seven years.

Analysis | Xi's India visit to help diplomatic thaw, but business ties bound by suspicion

Mr. Xi last visited in October 2019 for an informal summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Mamallapuram near Chennai. The two leaders are expected to meet for bilateral talks on the sidelines of the summit in New Delhi.

India-China trade talks planned

Mr. Xi will be accompanied by a large delegation, including Politburo member and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and Commerce Minister Wang Wentao, who is likely to have talks on the sidelines with Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, his counterpart. The talks between the two trade ministers will give both sides the opportunity to take stock of a growing but challenging trade relationship and air their respective concerns, with India seeking an easing of export controls and China wanting further relaxation of investment restrictions.

‘Xi visit, an enormous opportunity’

Beyond the outcomes, Mr. Xi’s visit in itself holds enormous significance for the relationship in the view of India and Chinese officials, and for the continued normalisation process. Especially on the Chinese side, a visit by Mr. Xi to India, after a seven-year gap, is seen as important signalling to the Chinese system on where relations are headed after a difficult period.

With the upcoming summit, there was “a valuable opportunity to deepen China-India cooperation on issues of mutual concern, from trade and connectivity to climate action, public health and the digital economy, while contributing constructively to a more balanced, inclusive and equitable global order”, Indian Ambassador to China Vikram Doraiswami wrote in an article published on Thursday (September 10) in the Communist Party-run Global Times.

“As two of the world’s most populous emerging economies, a stable, predictable and amicable relationship between India and China is not only in the interest of our 2.8 billion people, but is also a significant factor for peace, stability and prosperity in Asia and the wider world,” he said, adding that “peace and tranquility in the China-India border areas provide an essential foundation for this partnership.”

Border tensions starting in April 2020, culminating in a clash at Galwan Valley in June that marked the worst violence along the disputed border in many years, brought a four-year freeze in relations. Following a meeting between Mr. Modi and Mr. Xi in October 2024 on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan, both sides have begun a gradual and steady normalisation in relations.

Mr. Modi and Mr. Xi last met at the SCO Summit in Tianjin, China, in August last year, when they both “welcomed the positive momentum and steady progress in bilateral relations” and “reaffirmed that the two countries were development partners and not rivals, and that their differences should not turn into disputes.”

‘Both sides may aim to keep ties stable’

In China, the visit by Mr. Xi is being seen as an effort by both sides to keep ties stable, rather than as an indicator of any significant realignment.

“I would describe it as strategic risk management rather than strategic realignment,” Hu Shisheng, Director of the South Asia Institute at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR) in Beijing told The Hindu in a recent interview.

“Recent difficulties in India-U.S. relations may give New Delhi greater incentives to diversify its strategic options, while the relative stabilisation of China-U.S. ties reduces some of the external pressure on China-India relations. But the structural differences between China and India have not disappeared. What we are seeing is an attempt to build a more stable form of competitive coexistence – keeping the border peaceful, restoring practical cooperation, and expanding coordination through BRICS and the Global South without pretending that strategic competition no longer exists.”

During talks in Beijing last month, both National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Mr. Wang, the Foreign Minister, specifically highlighted the positive impact that meetings between the leadership had on the relationship in setting the trajectory.