Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in New Delhi on Saturday to attend the 18th BRICS summit, marking his first trip to India since October 2019, foreign ministry representatives and Chinese state news agency Xinhua confirmed, as reported by Al Jazeera and AFP. Xi traveled at the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, leading an official delegation that includes Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and senior Communist Party official Cai Qi.
The two-day conference convenes representatives across the 11-member bloc amid escalating international conflicts and economic pressures.
Discussions at the Bharat Mandapam venue center on the Middle East crisis, the war in Ukraine, disruptions to global supply routes, and collective energy security. Beyond multilateral deliberations, the visit represents a significant diplomatic step following years of military confrontation along the 3,500-kilometer disputed Himalayan frontier in eastern Ladakh. While forward troops remain stationed across strategic border sectors, bilateral relations have witnessed a gradual thaw through the restoration of commercial flights, travel visas, and bilateral security dialogues.
Exiled Tibetan groups staged public demonstrations across several sites in New Delhi opposing the Chinese leadership`s arrival.
Later in the day, Xi and Modi held direct bilateral talks on the sidelines of the summit, with delegations addressing border de-escalation frameworks alongside commercial imbalances. Diplomatic representatives from member states worked through extended closed-door sessions to finalize terms for the consensus-based New Delhi Declaration.
