Xi Jinping in India after 7 years: When will PM Modi meet Chinese President? What is on the agenda
The Chinese President arrived in New Delhi for the 18th BRICS Summit, his first visit to India in seven years since an informal summit held in 2019.
A bilateral meeting with India's Prime Minister was scheduled on the sidelines of the summit, following the two leaders' most recent in-person meeting in August 2025 on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin, China.
The agenda was expected to cover the boundary situation in eastern Ladakh, the resumption of direct flights and border trade, and the large and widening bilateral trade imbalance.
The visit continues a pattern of periodic leader-level engagement outside formal state visits, most notably the "informal summit" format used in 2018 and 2019.
The India-China "Informal Summit" Format (Wuhan 2018, Mamallapuram 2019)
An "informal summit" is a leader-level meeting without a fixed agenda, formal delegation-level talks, or a joint statement or MoU — designed to allow free-flowing, strategic-level conversation distinct from a structured state visit. India and China have used this format twice, both times following periods of heightened border tension.
Key Details
- First informal summit: Wuhan, China, 27–28 April 2018, held after the 2017 Doklam standoff (a stand-off at the India-Bhutan-China tri-junction); produced the informal "Wuhan Spirit" of strategic communication, with no signed documents.
- Second informal summit: Mamallapuram (near Chennai), Tamil Nadu, 11–12 October 2019 — India's choice of an ancient Pallava-dynasty (3rd–9th century CE) heritage site was read as a "soft power" counter to Wuhan's showcase of Chinese economic development.
- Both summits resulted in general commitments (e.g., a high-level trade and investment dialogue, people-to-people exchange mechanisms) rather than binding agreements; no third informal summit has been held since 2019.
- This format is distinct from a "State Visit" (highest formal protocol tier, with ceremonial honours and a structured bilateral agenda) and from summit-sideline "pull-asides," which are shorter and unscheduled.
The current visit is not styled as a third informal summit but as a bilateral meeting on the margins of a multilateral event (BRICS) — a lower-intensity format than Wuhan or Mamallapuram, reflecting the relationship's cautious, post-Galwan recalibration rather than a full reset.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) as the Other Multilateral Venue
The two leaders' most recent prior meeting took place at the SCO Summit in Tianjin (August 2025), making the SCO — distinct from BRICS — the other major multilateral platform where India and China regularly interact at the highest level.
Key Details
- SCO origins: evolved from the "Shanghai Five" (1996: China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan), formally established as the SCO on 15 June 2001 in Shanghai with the addition of Uzbekistan.
- India and Pakistan were admitted as full members on 9 June 2017 at the Astana Summit, the SCO's first-ever expansion round.
- Current full membership stands at 10 states: China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Iran (joined 2023), and Belarus (joined 2024).
- Unlike BRICS (an economic/political grouping with no security mandate), the SCO's founding charter emphasises regional security cooperation against the "three evils" — terrorism, separatism, and extremism — alongside economic and cultural cooperation; its Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) is headquartered in Tashkent.
Because China and Russia anchor both the SCO and BRICS, and India is a full member of both, India-China leader interactions increasingly occur across two overlapping but functionally distinct multilateral platforms rather than through bilateral state visits alone.
The India-China Trade Deficit and RCEP Non-Participation
Trade imbalance is a recurring, quantifiable irritant in the relationship and a standing item whenever the two leaders meet, whether at Wuhan, Mamallapuram, or on summit sidelines.
Key Details
- India's trade deficit with China has widened sharply in recent years, crossing the $99 billion mark in FY 2024-25 and estimated to approach or exceed $106 billion for calendar year 2025, even as bilateral trade itself hit record levels (over $125 billion).
- The deficit stems primarily from India's heavy import dependence on Chinese electronics, active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), telecom equipment, and industrial machinery, against relatively narrow Indian exports of raw materials and intermediate goods.
- Concerns over deepening this imbalance were a central reason India cited for opting out of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in November 2019 — the world's largest FTA bloc, which includes China and the ten ASEAN states, and which India would otherwise have joined as a founding member.
- "Market access" — cited as an expected agenda item — typically refers to Indian requests for easier entry for pharmaceuticals, IT/ITES services, and agricultural products into the Chinese market, which remains comparatively restricted.
The trade deficit gives the current visit its clearest Mains-relevant policy dimension: any agenda discussion on "market access" is, in substance, about correcting an imbalance India has flagged as strategically significant since before its RCEP withdrawal.
- Prior visit by the Chinese President to India: 2019 (Mamallapuram informal summit); gap of seven years to the 2026 visit.
- Most recent leader-level meeting before this visit: August 2025, SCO Summit, Tianjin, China.
- First informal summit: Wuhan, 27–28 April 2018 (post-Doklam); second: Mamallapuram, 11–12 October 2019.
- SCO founded: 15 June 2001, Shanghai; India and Pakistan admitted as full members: 9 June 2017 (Astana Summit).
- SCO current full members: 10 (China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Belarus).
- India's trade deficit with China: approx. $99 billion (FY 2024-25), projected to approach/exceed $106 billion for calendar year 2025, against bilateral trade exceeding $125 billion.
- India opted out of RCEP in November 2019, citing trade-deficit and market-access concerns with China.