Modi, Xi Pledge to Resolve Border Dispute at BRICS Summit — SkimNews
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- Modi and Xi met Sept 12 on the sidelines of the 11-nation BRICS summit in New Delhi and agreed to work toward a "fair, reasonable, and mutually acceptable resolution of the boundary question," per India's foreign ministry.
- Xi made his first visit to neighboring India since 2019, the biggest step yet in a cautious thaw between the nuclear-armed rivals, though both sides still maintain heavy military deployments along the roughly 3,500km high-altitude border along Tibet.
- The meeting came roughly six years after a deadly military clash along the disputed frontier; ties have since improved through restored flights, visas, and high-level contacts, but the underlying territorial dispute remains unresolved.
- Bilateral goods trade hit US$151 billion in the 2025-26 financial year, making China India's largest trading partner — but the relationship is heavily skewed toward Beijing, with India importing US$131 billion against just US$19 billion in exports, leaving a record US$112 billion trade deficit.
- Modi invoked "three mutuals" — mutual respect, mutual sensitivity, and mutual interest — while both leaders "underlined the need to address each other's concerns, including structural trade imbalance and supply chain issues," according to New Delhi's statement.
- Dozens of Tibetan exiles protested in New Delhi on Sept 11, waving placards against Xi's visit; the Dalai Lama, their Buddhist spiritual leader, has lived in India since fleeing a Chinese crackdown in 1959.
Why it matters: The diplomatic warmth masks a deeply lopsided economic relationship: a record US$112 billion trade deficit gives Beijing structural leverage that no border agreement alone resolves. Modi publicly flagged "structural trade imbalance and supply chain issues" — meaning the hard bargaining begins after the handshakes, and India's exporters remain shut out of the Chinese market while Chinese goods flood in.
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