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‘Differences should not become disputes’: PM Modi tells Xi peace on border key to India-China ties
Xi and Modi welcomed the ‘steady progress’ in India-China ties since their last meeting in Tianjin in August 2025.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in New Delhi on Saturday, as India and China seek to reset ties. India said the two countries must ensure that “differences should not become disputes.”
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“Prime Minister emphasized that peace and tranquility in the border areas remains an essential basis for the continued development of bilateral relations,” the ministry of external affairs said in a statement following the meeting.
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Xi landed in Delhi on Saturday to participate in India-hosted BRICS Summit – his first visit in seven years. Xi had come to India in 2019 when he visited Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu. India-China ties suffered major setback in the following months after military clashes in Ladakh's Galwan Valley.
‘Three mutuals’
Xi and Modi welcomed the ‘steady progress’ in India-China ties since their last meeting in Tianjin in August 2025. “They reaffirmed that both countries should take a strategic and long term perspective of their ties. Differences should not become disputes,” the ministry said, adding that Modi highlighted that both sides must be guided by three mutuals- mutual respect, mutual sensitivity and mutual interest.
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As India-China border issue featured in the bilateral talks, Xi and Modi expressed ‘commitment to a fair, reasonable, and mutually acceptable resolution’, MEA said.
Modi and Xi had met Tianjin, China last year in August on the sidelines of the SCO Summit 2025.
What Xi said during the bilateral
In talks with Modi, Xi described India and China as ‘important members’of the Global South and said the two nations ‘shoulder significant responsibilities’.
“In the face of a complex international landscape marked by intertwined changes and challenges, China and India, as the world's two most populous countries and important members of the Global South, shoulder significant responsibilities. Both sides should keep the future of humanity in mind and the well-being of their peoples at heart, and work together to advance high-quality cooperation within the greater BRICS framework. We should advocate an equal and orderly multipolar world and an inclusive, mutually beneficial form of economic globalisation, injecting more positive energy into the promotion of world peace, stability, development and prosperity,” Xi said.
Earlier in the day, Xi said that the Middle East war does not serve ‘common interests', adding that the BRICS countries to oppose violations of other countries' sovereignty, interference in their internal affairs, Reuters reported.
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Addressing the BRICS Summit in New Delhi, Xi Jinping said that China would work with other members of the BRICS bloc towards that goal, as the conflict in the Middle East "does not serve the common interests of the international community", Reuters reported state-run CCTV quoted Xi as saying.
"Chinese President Xi Jinping urged the BRICS bloc to be a peacemaker in the Middle East conflict, in an address to a summit of member countries in New Delhi today. China will work with other BRICS members in that role, as the war "does not serve the common interests of the international community", state-run CCTV quoted Xi as saying.
