Xi: China and India can achieve mutual development

New Delhi (ANTARA) - China and India can achieve “mutual development” and learn from “each other’s strengths,” stated Chinese President Xi Jinping to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday.

Xi held talks with Modi in India’s capital, New Prime Delhi, on the sidelines of the 18th BRICS Summit, according to China’s news agency, Xinhua.

The Chinese leader arrived in New Delhi on Saturday to attend the BRICS Summit, marking his first visit to India in the last seven years.

He called on the two nations in the Himalayan region to “join hands to achieve high-quality development in order to enhance BRICS cooperation.”

Saturday’s meeting between the two leaders marks their third consecutive meeting in the last three years, following discussions in Kazan, Russia, in 2024 and another meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Tianjin in 2025.

Xi and Modi also met at the SCO Summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, which also took place this year, though they did not hold official talks at that time.

Xi last visited India in 2019, a few months before military tensions erupted between the forces of both nations in Ladakh. The conflict lasted for over four years and brought bilateral relations to their lowest point in six decades.

Bilateral relations between the two countries have gradually improved in recent years, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visiting China last year, and both nations taking several steps to revitalise high-level relations between China and India.