Xi and Modi Meet at BRICS Summit

Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Faz) | Original Published At: 2026-09-12 12:04:52 UTC

Key Points

• Xi Jinping's visit to New Delhi was his first to India in seven years, and his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi dominated coverage of the BRICS summit despite lasting about 24 hours.
• China and India reaffirmed their commitment to a fair, reasonable, and mutually acceptable solution to the border issue and agreed that differences should not become disputes.
• Prime Minister Modi said BRICS should be positioned as non-Western rather than anti-Western, while Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized the old leading powers at the BRICS Business Forum.
• Modi proposed a 10-point plan for global governance reform, including UN Security Council reform and broader participation in setting global rules, to be developed into a roadmap by the next summit under China's chair.
• BRICS adopted the New Delhi Declaration, expressing deep concern over escalating tensions in the Middle East and calling for maximum restraint, without directly condemning the Israel-US attack on Iran or mentioning Russia's attack on Ukraine.
• BRICS expansion complicated the summit, with disagreements between Iran and the United Arab Emirates over the Middle East war hindering agreement on the final declaration.
• The declaration included indirect criticism of US tariffs and explored linking cross-border digital payment systems, while India sought to advance this without directly challenging the dollar as a reserve currency.