Can old rivals turn to something more? Five things to know as China’s Xi Jinping returns to India after five years

Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to visit India for a BRICS summit on September 12-13, marking his first trip to the country in over five years. The visit comes after relations between the two nuclear-armed Asian giants have slowly improved following a deadly border clash in 2020. Both India and China retain heavy military deployments along their roughly 3,500-kilometre border along Tibet, with the underlying territorial dispute remaining unresolved.

India is China's largest trading partner, but the relationship is heavily tilted towards Beijing, with a US$112 billion trade deficit in 2025-26. Despite efforts to improve ties, deep mistrust remains, with concerns over India's security partnership with the US and China's close relationship with India's rival Pakistan.