The government has confirmed that Chinese President Xi Jinping would travel to India this weekend to attend the 18th BRICS conference in New Delhi, thereby putting an end to days of intense diplomatic tension. “At the invitation of Primec Minister of the Republic of India Narendra Modi, President Xi Jinping will attend the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi from September 12 to 13,” China’s foreign ministry statement stated.
Guo Jia-kun, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, declined to confirm Xi’s visit to New Delhi earlier in the day.
Guo Jiakun responded, “I have no information to provide regarding the question you raised,” when asked if the Chinese leader would be visiting India this weekend to attend the meeting of the BRICS leaders.
Following a cooling of bilateral relations following the 2020 Galwan Valley border battles that claimed the lives of 20 Indians and an undetermined number of Chinese soldiers, this high-stakes visit is Xi’s first to India in seven years. Xi last traveled to India in 2019 to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi informally in Mamallapuram, which is close to Chennai.
When both leaders were first in office, in September 2014, Xi made his maiden trip to India. In 2016, he traveled to Goa to attend the BRICS summit.
Particularly since PM Modi’s visit to China last year and as both countries struggle with unstable relations with the US, bilateral relations between the two countries have improved. Since then, New Delhi has loosened some of the limitations it had placed on Chinese investment after the 2020 conflicts, concentrating on the solar cell, capital goods, and electronics industries.
China’s foreign ministry told Reuters that Xi and Prime Minister Modi believe the two nations are “partners, not competitors, and they represent opportunities, not threats, for each other’s development” after their brief meeting this month at a regional forum in Kyrgyzstan.
Chinese companies’ proposed investments in India are being scrutinized more closely by Beijing itself, according to sources who spoke to news agency Reuters. This is especially true in industries that may entail sophisticated manufacturing and high-end technology. Nevertheless, according to Chinese customs data, bilateral trade between the two countries increased 12.4% to a record $155 billion last year, more than doubling the $71.6 billion recorded ten years prior.
Compared to the same period last year, trade increased by 23% in the first seven months of this year.
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