"Ready To Manage Differences": China Ahead Of Modi-Xi Meet At BRICS

Beijing and New Delhi are working to "properly manage differences" and be "friends committed to good neighbourliness and amity", China underscored ahead of president Xi Jinping's meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as BRICS summit gets underway in India's national capital. 

It is Xi's first visit to India since 2019, and marks the biggest step yet in a cautious thaw between the rival neighbours, six years after a deadly military clash at Galwan valley in eastern Ladakh near the Line of Actual Control. In October 2024, Beijing and Delhi agreed on patrolling arrangements, paving the way for renewed political contacts.

PM Modi visited China in August last year, in a first sign of the cautious thaw.

"China is ready to work with India to follow the strategic guidance of the leaders of the two countries, handle China-India relations from a strategic and long-term perspective, strengthen communication, enhance cooperation, properly manage differences, and be friends committed to good-neighborliness and amity, and partners that contribute to each other's success," spokesperson of Beijing's foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Friday.

This will be the third consecutive year that the two leaders have met, the latest being the formal bilateral talks at the SCO summit in Tianjin in August 2025 which offered another public signal of a thaw.

Ties between the nuclear-armed Asian giants have been warming again, with flights, visas and high-level contacts gradually being restored.

On the BRICS summit, Beijing said it is willing to work with all BRICS partners to ensure that greater BRICS cooperation makes steady and sustained progress.

"China attaches great importance to and actively participates in BRICS cooperation. At this meeting, President Xi Jinping will attend and deliver an important speech, engage in in-depth exchanges with leaders of other countries on major issues including the current international situation, the development of the BRICS mechanism and deepening practical cooperation, put forward important Chinese initiatives, and provide strategic direction for the high-quality development of greater BRICS cooperation," Mao Ning said.

BRICS was created in 2009 as a forum for major emerging economies seeking greater influence in institutions dominated by Western powers.

It has since expanded and now includes Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- three countries with sharply differing positions on the war launched by the United States and Israel in February.