Modi and Xi attempt a cautious India–China reset at BRICS

Xi Jinping is in India for the first time since 2019, and he and Narendra Modi are deliberately presenting China and India as partners capable of stabilising a more “multipolar” world. Relations collapsed after the 2020 Ladakh border fighting killed at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers; military deployments and the underlying territorial dispute remain.

The important part is not that India has suddenly joined a Chinese camp — it very clearly has not. India is simultaneously deepening ties with the US, competing with China for manufacturing investment and resisting Beijing’s Belt and Road ambitions. What Modi is doing is preserving room to manoeuvre among Washington, Moscow and Beijing rather than choosing a permanent bloc. BRICS itself illustrates the same strategy: Iran and the UAE managed to sign the same declaration despite being on sharply different sides of current regional conflicts.

The emerging order looks less like two Cold-War-style camps and more like large middle powers repeatedly changing partners depending on the issue.