Sustaining Ties, Managing Disputes: Messages from the Xi-Modi Meeting Ahead of Trump Summit

The bilateral meeting between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the New Delhi BRICS summit on Sept. 12 was one of the event’s highlights, which brought together leaders and representatives from countries including Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. 

The meeting gained added significance because it came less than two weeks before the scheduled September 24 summit between Xi and U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington. India and China, the world’s two most populous countries and major economies, share expanding trade but also a long-disputed, militarized border, against the backdrop of intensifying U.S.-China strategic and economic competition. 

The BRICS setting therefore provided a platform for the two neighbors to manage tensions, assert their respective interests and signal their positions to Washington. One expert described the India-China relationship as a “Nash equilibrium,” while another said the two leaders were essentially trying to ensure that their differences do not escalate into disputes.

In game theory, a Nash equilibrium describes a situation in which each participant chooses a strategy based on what the others are doing, leaving no participant with an incentive to change course unilaterally.

Sustaining the bilateral relationship while managing disputes

The BRICS summit brought Xi to India for the first time in seven years, after the 2020 Galwan clash severely damaged bilateral ties and triggered a major military escalation along the border. Relations began showing signs of a thaw following meetings between Modi and Xi and renewed negotiations, including progress toward stabilizing the border situation.

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Since then, India-China ties have also been shaped by the broader U.S.-China geopolitical contest, including trade tensions. The two countries have sought to sustain their relationship while managing persistent disputes.

K. Yhome, a senior fellow at Asian Confluence in Shillong, India’s strategic northeast, told Vision Times that Xi and Modi appeared “relaxed and composed” during their meeting, with no sign of stiffness.

“While Xi and Modi acknowledged that the boundary dispute, structural trade imbalances, and market access remain serious bilateral issues between the two countries, their willingness to ensure that ‘differences’ do not become ‘disputes’ was the highlight—not because it was a new idea, but because it was a sign that the leaders of the two countries have found a way to manage and sustain their relationship,” Yhome said.

China’s Foreign Ministry similarly emphasized a strategic, long-term approach to relations with India, noting the resumption of institutional exchanges, an expanding cooperation agenda and record bilateral trade. Beijing said the two countries are “partners rather than rivals” and should bring development opportunities rather than threats to each other.” 

However, Claude Arpi, a French-born historian, journalist and Tibetologist based in India, highlighted “vast” differences between the statements issued by New Delhi and Beijing.

“India insisted on the importance of a peaceful border for stable bilateral relations. For Delhi, peace and tranquility along the border remain an indispensable foundation for the relationship. The Chinese statement was vague about this subject,” Arpi told Vision Times.

India’s statement released following the summit said Modi emphasized that “peace and tranquility in the border areas remains an essential basis” for the continued development of bilateral relations. It also called for respect for existing border agreements and a mutually acceptable resolution of the boundary question. 

Meanwhile, the Chinese side did not mention “peace and tranquility” as a condition for healthy bilateral ties, but rather as one of the four observations made by Xi for promoting steady and sustainable relations.

“The two sides should stay committed to advancing bilateral relations and resolving the boundary question, seek parallel, mutually reinforcing progress, and maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas,” the Chinese statement reads.

Arpi also pointed to the fact that India and China issued separate statements following the meeting, despite recent high-level boundary negotiations, including talks between India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing on Aug. 25.

“It does not augur well for the future,” said Arpi.

However, the same differentiating diplomatic approach by India, as reflected in the separate statements, is termed “Modiplomacy” by Felipe Cuello, a Dominican-American economist and public-policy professor with a background in international affairs and foreign policy who worked as a transition official for the first Trump administration.

“The bilateral with Xi was almost an accident, ‘accidentally on purpose’ bumping into each other on the sidelines. The statement of the summit is also mainly distinguished by existing at all, and the absence of subjects rather than their presence,” Cuello said.

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A message for the US ahead of the Trump-Xi summit

The BRICS summit took place less than two weeks before the scheduled Trump-Xi meeting in Washington, giving the Modi-Xi talks added significance for policymakers watching the evolving relationships among India, China and the United States. 

Yhome said that New Delhi hosting the BRICS summit, and Xi’s presence in the Indian capital at a time when U.S. ties with certain BRICS nations, including Iran, Russia, and China, are challenging, sends a strong message to Washington.

“More specifically, that the two leaders agreed ‘to expand common ground on regional and global issues’ was a signal to the U.S. that the two nations are willing to align and push forward their shared positions on global issues that may be against U.S. interests,” he said.

Arpi highlighted that Xi, despite reportedly being unwell, attended the BRICS summit in New Delhi and presented a five-point plan that included a proposal to integrate markets and develop an open-source AI platform. Arpi said this was a clear message to the U.S., since Xi and Trump are expected to discuss AI — including its development, safety, governance, and the U.S.-China technology competition — on Sept. 24.

“China offered to lead a BRICS AI open-source community to back large language models (LLMs) and build an open tech ecosystem,” he said, adding that Beijing also proposed a BRICS special economic zone partnership featuring an intelligent portal to coordinate policies and expand cross-border trade.

However, Cuello believes that the main message coming from the Xi-Modi meeting is an indirect denunciation of Beijing’s agendas.

“The main message I saw was an implicit rebuke of Beijing’s triumphalist propaganda. There’s clearly much less going on substantively, even at the rhetorical level, than what the public declarations from Pretoria or Havana make it sound like,” Cuello said.