Modi-Xi talks: India, China seek stronger business ties

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday stressed the need to further promote business linkages and greater mobility between India and China, while emphasising that peace and tranquillity along the frontier remains essential for the development of bilateral relations.

Modi hosted Xi for bilateral talks on the sidelines of the BRICS leaders’ summit in New Delhi. The discussions focused on normalising bilateral ties through expansion of trade and investment ties.

Xi arrived in the national capital hours before the meeting for a two-day visit to attend the BRICS Summit, marking his first trip to India in seven years.

“I welcome you to India,” Modi said in his opening remarks at the meeting.

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The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the two leaders reaffirmed that both countries should take a strategic and long-term perspective of their ties and that differences should not become disputes.

“The prime minister emphasised that peace and tranquillity in the border areas remains an essential basis for the continued development of bilateral relations,” the MEA said.

“He underlined the need for both sides to observe existing agreements and understandings on border related issues,” it added.

Modi also highlighted that both sides must be “guided by three mutuals — mutual respect, mutual sensitivity and mutual interest” in their ties.

On the economic front, Modi and Xi underlined the need to address each other’s concerns, including structural trade imbalance and supply chain issues, and facilitation of meaningful and predictable market access, the MEA said.

The two leaders expressed commitment to a “fair, reasonable, and mutually acceptable” resolution of the boundary question proceeding from the political perspective of their overall bilateral relations and the long-term interests of the two sides.

The MEA said the “two leaders took note of the progress in people-to-people ties and underscored the need to further promote cultural exchanges, business linkages and greater mobility between the two countries.”

“The two leaders agreed that both sides must continue to expand common ground on regional and global issues, and in addressing challenges,” it said.

Modi appreciated China’s support for India’s BRICS chairship and its contributions towards the success of the grouping’s summit.

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Xi said Beijing has always viewed the development of India-China relations from a “strategic and long-term perspective”.

“Although our national conditions differ, we can fully support each other and pursue common development path,” he said in Mandarin.

“Faced with a complex and intertwined international situation, China and India — as the world’s two most populous countries and key members of the Global South — shoulder significant responsibilities,” he said.

“Both sides should keep the future of humanity and the well-being of our people in mind. We must join hands to promote cooperation and strive for an inclusive economic future,” he said.

The meeting came as New Delhi and Beijing continue efforts to rebuild ties that were badly damaged by the 2020 military clash on their disputed Himalayan border.

In the last few months, the two sides have taken a series of measures to rebuild their relationship after it came under severe strain following the deadly Galwan Valley clashes in 2020.

After over four years of frosty ties over the eastern Ladakh military standoff, India and China began to repair the relations following a meeting between Modi and Xi in the Russian city of Kazan in October 2024 that took place after the face-off ended.

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People familiar with the matter said Xi’s visit presents a key opportunity to further normalise relations that came under severe strain following the eastern Ladakh military standoff.

Xi’s visit to India came on the heels of several high-level exchanges, including the Special Representative dialogue in Beijing between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, even as lingering concerns remain over aggressive Chinese military posturing along the Arunachal Pradesh sector.

Doval had held the Special Representative talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang late last month. The discussions focused on delimitation of the frontier and sustaining work on trans-boundary cooperation as well as maintaining peace along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Both Doval and Wang are the designated special representatives for the boundary talks mechanism, which was established in 2003 to comprehensively address the dispute of the India-China border spanning 3,488 km.

Modi and Xi held wide-ranging talks on August 31 last year on the margins of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Chinese city of Tianjin.

The talks between Modi and Xi covered a range of issues including reducing their trade deficit, tackling challenges like terrorism and ensuring fair trade in multilateral platforms.