Chinese President Xi Jinping has received a red-carpet welcome in India for a summit of Brics developing nations, signalling a significant thaw in relations between Beijing and Delhi following a deadly military clash in 2020.
Mr Xi’s arrival in Delhi marks his first visit to India in seven years and is considered a major step towards reconciliation between the two regional rivals, who are also quietly competing for leadership amid shifting global power dynamics, as reported by The Guardian.
Thaw in India-China Relations
Upon stepping off his plane, President Xi was greeted by an honour guard of Indian soldiers and traditional dancers. He was later due to attend a gala dinner for the two-day summit, hosted by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had already welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, according to The Guardian.
The warming of ties follows a military confrontation along the disputed Himalayan border in 2020, which resulted in the deaths of 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers. Since then, flights and high-level contacts between the nuclear-armed Asian giants have been gradually restored. China’s foreign ministry stated on Friday that Beijing was “willing” to work with India to properly manage differences and to be “good neighbours and friends.” Prime Minister Modi has said that border peace is key to India-China ties, as reported by CNBC, and bilateral talks between Modi and Xi began after the Brics declaration, as per The Times of India.
Brics Summit Dynamics and Expansion
The annual gathering of the Brics grouping – originally comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – was conceived in 2009 as a counterweight to Western dominance. The bloc has since expanded its forum for major emerging economies to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, now accounting for half of the global population and rivalling the US-dominated G7 forum of advanced economies.
However, this growth has also brought new fractures, with tensions noted earlier this year between member states Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. Brics foreign ministers also failed to agree on a joint statement when they met in Delhi in May. Despite these challenges, the summit on Saturday saw the bloc unanimously agree on the wording of the “New Delhi declaration.” This declaration reiterated a commitment to the peaceful resolution of international disputes “through dialogue, consultation and diplomacy” and called for “maximum restraint” in the Middle East, without specifically naming countries involved in conflicts.
Jiang Shixue, vice-president of the expert committee of the China thinktank Council for BRICs cooperation (China), commented to the South China Morning Post that the 11 members “cannot speak with one voice on many issues” and that “the only solution is to continuously strengthen political consensus.”
Divergent Visions for the Bloc
The summit comes at a time when global events, including wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and rising US-China tensions, are testing the bloc’s ability to find common ground. There are differing views among members on the group’s role. China has sought to expand Brics power as a counterweight to the US, particularly under leadership that has launched global tariff and trade wars and retreated from multilateral institutions.
India, conversely, has adopted a more cautious approach, viewing Brics as a bridge between the West and the developing world. In his address to begin Saturday’s talks, Prime Minister Modi asserted that Brics was “not against anyone.” Chietigj Bajpaee, a senior research fellow for South Asia in the Asia-Pacific programme at Chatham House, noted that India’s policy of “strategic hedging” can appear “out of sync” in a forum with members holding more overtly anti-western agendas, such as China, Russia, and Iran.
