China confirms Xi Jinping's India visit for Brics summit on September 12-13, first trip in 7 years
China confirmed that President Xi Jinping will visit India for the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi on September 12-13, 2026 — his first visit to India in seven years.
A bilateral meeting between the Chinese President and India's Prime Minister is expected on the summit's margins, continuing a dialogue track resumed after the two leaders met at the BRICS Summit in Kazan in October 2024.
The visit follows an October 2024 disengagement and patrolling understanding at the two remaining friction points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), and a resumption of the Special Representatives-level boundary talks in December 2024.
The visit is being read as a marker of gradual normalisation in bilateral engagement following a prolonged period of reduced high-level contact after 2020.
The Special Representatives (SR) Mechanism on the India-China Boundary Question
The SR mechanism was established in 2003 to examine the India-China boundary dispute from a broader political perspective, separate from routine diplomatic and military channels. It is the senior-most institutionalised track for boundary negotiations between the two countries.
Xi Jinping's visit follows the resumption of this dialogue track, situating the summit visit within a broader, multi-layered sequence of boundary diplomacy rather than as an isolated gesture.
LAC Disengagement and the "Friction Points" Framework
The Line of Actual Control (LAC) is the de facto boundary between India and Chinese-controlled territory, distinct from the Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan and the International Border (IB) elsewhere; it is not a mutually demarcated line, which is the root cause of recurring "friction points."
Key Details
- Following the 2020 Galwan Valley clash, both sides built up troops and infrastructure at multiple friction points in eastern Ladakh, including Galwan, Pangong Tso, Gogra-Hot Springs, Depsang and Demchok.
- Disengagement agreements were reached progressively at earlier friction points between 2020 and 2022; the last two — Depsang and Demchok — were resolved through a patrolling and disengagement understanding announced in October 2024.
- The October 2024 understanding restored patrolling arrangements broadly similar to the pre-2020 status quo at these two points, without resolving the underlying boundary dispute itself.
- Confidence-building measures (CBMs) governing the LAC derive from bilateral agreements including the 1993 Agreement on Peace and Tranquillity and the 1996 Agreement on CBMs in the Military Field.
The improved climate enabling Xi Jinping's visit is directly linked to the resolution of the last outstanding friction points in October 2024, though the boundary question itself remains unresolved and subject to ongoing SR-level talks.
Precedent: Informal Summits as a Diplomatic Track
Beyond the SR mechanism, India and China have periodically used "informal summits" between the top leaders — meetings without a fixed agenda or formal joint statement — to reset strategic-level dialogue, a track distinct from both the SR talks and multilateral-sideline meetings such as the one now planned at BRICS 2026.
Xi Jinping's confirmed presence in New Delhi represents a shift from purely multilateral-sideline engagement back toward direct, on-soil high-level contact, though it is occurring within a multilateral summit rather than as a dedicated bilateral informal summit.
- Xi Jinping's visit: September 12-13, 2026, New Delhi, for the 18th BRICS Summit — first visit to India in seven years.
- SR mechanism established: 2003; 23rd round of talks held December 2024, Beijing.
- Galwan Valley clash: June 2020, Ladakh sector.
- LAC disengagement at last two friction points (Depsang, Demchok): announced October 2024.
- Modi-Xi Kazan meeting: October 23, 2024, on BRICS summit sidelines — first formal bilateral meeting between the two leaders in nearly five years.
- Prior informal summits: Wuhan (April 2018), Chennai/Mamallapuram (October 2019).