Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit India after 7 years

Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to visit India to attend the upcoming BRICS summit in September. The international summit is scheduled to take place in New Delhi on 12 and 13 September.

Quoting an official from the BRICS summit host committee, news agency Reuters reported that Chinese officials are currently busy finalising hotel bookings and security protocols surrounding the conference.

Xi Jinping last visited India to attend the BRICS summit held in New Delhi in 2019. At the time, an entourage of around 200 officials accompanied him. The Chinese president will be visiting India again after seven long years, this time accompanied by a delegation of nearly 400 officials.

However, it remains unconfirmed whether a much-anticipated bilateral meeting will take place between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the visit. An official from China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that Beijing attaches great importance to the BRICS alliance and actively participates in all its initiatives. The official added that India is hosting the BRICS summit successfully this year, and China fully supports the endeavour.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for India’s Ministry of External Affairs has yet to comment on the matter.

Following Xi Jinping's visit to India in 2019, a deadly, bloody clash broke out between the armies of both nations in Ladakh along the India-China border in June 2020. Since that conflict, bilateral diplomatic relations between New Delhi and Beijing had remained severely strained for several years.

The frozen ties began to thaw last year after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Beijing—his first trip to China since 2018. Modi's visit broke a seven-year hiatus and initiated a gradual easing of diplomatic tensions between the two neighbouring nations.

India and China have long been locked in disputes over various border and regional security issues. In particular, China has claimed India’s Arunachal Pradesh and the union territory of Ladakh as its own territory for years.

Analysts anticipate that during Xi Jinping’s upcoming visit, crucial discussions regarding these unresolved border and regional issues may take place during his meeting with Modi.