‘Differences Should Not Become Disputes’: Modi, Xi Discuss India-China Ties At BRICS

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held bilateral talks on the sidelines of the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi on Saturday. The two leaders stated that they are committed to a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable resolution of the boundary question.

During their meeting, they welcomed what they called steady progress in India-China relations since their last meeting in Tianjin in August 2025. Modi said both countries should take a strategic and long-term view of their ties and that differences should not become disputes.

He added that the relationship must be guided by "three mutuals," mutual respect, mutual sensitivity and mutual interest, an official statement said.

Regarding the Indo-China border, Modi expressed that peace and tranquillity in the border areas remains essential for the relationship to develop further, and both sides should observe existing agreements on border-related issues.

The two leaders also discussed people-to-people exchanges, business ties and greater mobility and said trade imbalances, supply-chain issues and market access needed to be addressed. Modi thanked China for its support of India's BRICS chairship this year.

India and China share a roughly 3488-km border, large stretches of which remain undemarcated along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Relations deteriorated sharply in June 2020, after soldiers clashed in the Galwan Valley of Ladakh, which led to the martyrdom of 20 Indian soldiers and an unspecified number of Chinese personnel, the first deadly confrontation between the two armies in decades.

Multiple rounds of military and diplomatic talks since then has ed to disengagement at several friction points. However, de-escalation and de-indiction are yet to take place.

However, the ties began normalising after a Modi-Xi meeting in Kazan in October 2024, followed by the resumption of direct flights and the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage.