PM Modi invites China's President Xi Jinping to BRICS Summit 2026

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited China's President Xi Jinping to the BRICS Summit 2026, scheduled to be held in India in July. The two leaders met on Sunday, on the sidelines of the two-day Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit 2025.

While the Indian government is yet to confirm whether the Chinese president has accepted the invitation, the latter has extended support for India’s BRICS presidency.

The duo was meeting for the first time in China, after PM Modi’s 2018 visit to Wuhan. During the meeting, Modi emphasised on the need to build India-China relations on trust, respect and sensitivity.

He added that a stable relationship and cooperation between the two nations impacts the lives of 2.8 billion people aside from having an overall impact on humanity.

Both Modi and Jinping agreed on the need to facilitate direct flights and tourist visas between India and China, to strengthen their relations. Kailash Manasarovar Yatra resumed earlier this year from July, after a 5-year hiatus.

According to a government statement, on the economic and trade front, the nations agreed to take the discussions forward from a political and strategic angle, towards expansion of bilateral trade and investment ties, while reducing trade deficit.

Meanwhile, Jinping told PM Modi that the two nations shall remain ‘development opportunities’ and ‘cooperation partners,’ instead of being a threat to either side’s progress.

“A "cooperative pas de deux of the dragon and the elephant" should be the right choice for the two countries,” Jinping told PM Modi, Chinese Ambassador to India Xu Feihong revealed in a post on X.

Following his meeting with the president, PM Modi had a meeting with Cai Qi, Member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China. Cai Qi echoed Jinping’s views on expanding bilateral exchanges between the nations, while improving relations on areas of contention.