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What’s on agenda under Modi-Xi Jinping meeting

By Sohail Khan 11 September 2026, 12:00 pm

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

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

Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit India for the BRICS Summit this Saturday. His visit aims to stabilize India-China relations after years of strained interactions. The meeting with Prime Minister Modi will focus on border issues and economic cooperation. Both leaders will discuss managing the boundary dispute and trade imbalances. This visit tests the current thaw and seeks a durable framework for future engagement.

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 .

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.

Track latest updates on BRICS 2026 here

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.

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