Xi Jinping meets Narendra Modi to stabilize ties during India visit

Xi Jinping touched down in New Delhi on September 12, marking his first visit to India since October 2019. The trip, timed to coincide with the 18th BRICS Summit, also represents the first time Xi has held a bilateral meeting on Indian soil since Chinese and Indian troops clashed in the Galwan Valley in June 2020, a confrontation that killed soldiers on both sides and froze relations between the world’s two most populous nations.

Seven years of ice, slowly thawing

The Galwan Valley clash didn’t just cost lives. It effectively demolished the political infrastructure connecting Asia’s two largest economies. High-level engagement cratered. Military standoffs along the Line of Actual Control, the disputed border running through some of the world’s most inhospitable terrain, became the defining feature of the relationship.

Modi and Xi met on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan in October 2024. They met again in Tianjin on August 31, 2025. Each encounter was brief, scripted, and designed to signal that talking was happening without committing to much of substance.

The numbers behind the tension

In 2025, bilateral goods trade between the two countries reached approximately $155 billion. India ran a trade deficit with China of roughly $112 billion. China exports high-value manufactured goods, electronics, and industrial inputs to India, while India’s exports to China remain concentrated in lower-value commodities and raw materials.

Modi’s government has tried to address this through selective tariffs and restrictions on Chinese apps and investments, measures that began after the Galwan clash.

Border talks and people-to-people ties

The summit agenda covered border management along the LAC, trade facilitation mechanisms, and the resumption of people-to-people exchanges. Both sides pointed to the renewal of direct flights between Indian and Chinese cities and the resumption of pilgrimages.

A meeting between military officials took place on September 6-7, just days before Xi’s arrival. These talks are focused on patrol protocols, buffer zones, and de-escalation procedures along the border.

Xi championed what Chinese state media described as principles of friendship and mutual learning. He emphasized that effective cooperation across multiple fields would allow both nations to position themselves as development partners rather than competitors.

Geopolitics as matchmaker

Both India and China have championed the concept of multipolarity. The BRICS framework, which now includes an expanded membership, is the institutional expression of that vision.

The joint emphasis on preventing differences from escalating into disputes acknowledges that the differences aren’t going away. The border dispute, the trade imbalance, competing influence in South and Southeast Asia are structural features of the relationship. What both leaders appear to be pursuing is a managed rivalry, one where competition continues but within guardrails that prevent another Galwan.

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