Xi Jinping in Delhi after 7 years: China talks 'fairness, justice', cites Brics' 'enormous potential'
Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in New Delhi for the 18th BRICS Summit (12-13 September 2026), his first visit to India in seven years.
Ahead of the visit, China's state-run Global Times published an editorial framing BRICS as an increasingly important platform amid global uncertainty, built on openness, cooperation and "fairness and justice."
The editorial credited China with championing the establishment of the New Development Bank (NDB) in Shanghai, supporting BRICS's expansion, and proposing deeper cooperation on peace, innovation, green development and people-to-people exchanges.
China is set to assume the rotating BRICS presidency in 2027, following India's 2026 presidency.
The New Development Bank (NDB)
The New Development Bank is a multilateral development bank set up by the BRICS countries to mobilise resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in emerging economies, positioned as an alternative funding channel to Western-dominated institutions like the World Bank and IMF.
The Global Times editorial's reference to China "championing" the NDB's establishment in Shanghai is a direct callback to the bank's founding role for China as host of its headquarters, distinct from the trade and deficit dimension of the India-China relationship covered separately.
BRICS Institutional Evolution and Rotating Presidency
BRICS began as an informal grouping ("BRIC") coined in a 2001 Goldman Sachs paper, formalised as a group in 2009 (Brazil, Russia, India, China), with South Africa joining in 2010 to form "BRICS." The bloc runs on an annually rotating chair/presidency, with the host country setting the year's agenda and hosting the leaders' summit.
Key Details
- 2023 Johannesburg Summit approved expansion; Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the UAE became full members from 1 January 2024, taking membership to nine.
- 2024 Kazan Summit (Russia's presidency) created the "partner country" category.
- India held the BRICS chair/presidency for 2026, hosting the 18th Summit in New Delhi; China is scheduled to hold the presidency in 2027.
- BRICS decisions, including the New Delhi Declaration, are adopted by consensus among member states, not by binding treaty-style voting.
Xi's visit and the Global Times' framing of BRICS's "enormous potential" come at the handover point between India's 2026 presidency and China's upcoming 2027 presidency, making this summit a pivot for the bloc's institutional direction.
India-China Summit Diplomacy: Informal Summits vs Formal Visits
Beyond routine diplomatic contact, India and China instituted a distinct track of "informal summits" between the top leaders — without a fixed agenda or joint statement — to build personal rapport and discuss the broader relationship, separate from the formal Special Representatives (SR) mechanism (India's NSA and China's Foreign Minister) that specifically negotiates the boundary question.
Key Details
- First informal summit: Wuhan, China, April 2018.
- Second informal summit: Mamallapuram (Chennai), India, October 2019 — Xi Jinping's last visit to India before 2026, making the gap seven years.
- The Special Representatives' Dialogue on the India-China boundary question is a separate, standing mechanism (started 2003) that has held over 20 rounds, most recently between India's NSA and China's Foreign Minister.
- The 2026 Delhi visit occurs within a multilateral (BRICS Summit) framework rather than as a bilateral informal summit, marking a different diplomatic format from 2018/2019.
The "after 7 years" framing in reporting on Xi's visit refers precisely to the gap since the October 2019 Mamallapuram informal summit, and the current visit's multilateral (BRICS) setting is a structurally different diplomatic channel from the earlier bilateral informal summits.
BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA)
Alongside the NDB, BRICS members simultaneously created the Contingent Reserve Arrangement in 2014 — a currency swap arrangement to provide members with liquidity support during balance-of-payments pressures, reducing reliance on IMF facilities.
Key Details
- Established by treaty at the same Fortaleza Summit (July 2014) as the NDB.
- Total committed reserve pool: $100 billion, with China contributing $41 billion, Russia/Brazil/India $18 billion each, and South Africa $5 billion.
- Access beyond 30% of a member's quota requires an IMF-linked program, tying CRA support partially to the existing multilateral framework it was meant to supplement.
The CRA is the lesser-known financial-architecture twin of the NDB referenced in the same "BRICS financial cooperation" narrative that the Global Times editorial and Chinese officials invoke when describing China's role in strengthening BRICS institutions.
- 18th BRICS Summit: New Delhi, 12-13 September 2026; India's BRICS presidency year.
- Xi Jinping's previous visit to India: October 2019 (Mamallapuram informal summit) — a seven-year gap.
- New Development Bank: established 2014, HQ Shanghai, $100 billion authorised capital, first president K.V. Kamath (India, 2015-2020).
- BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement: $100 billion pool, established 2014 alongside the NDB.
- BRICS full membership: 9 countries as of 2026 (original five plus Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, UAE from January 2024).
- China to assume the BRICS rotating presidency in 2027.