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New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday (September 12) sought to consolidate a gradual thaw in India-China ties, with Chinese President Xi Jinping saying the progress made between the two countries was “worth cherishing” as he returned to India for the first time since 2019.

The Chinese leader landed at noon in Delhi for a 24-hour flying visit to take part in the BRICS summit – his first landing in Indian soil since the informal summit in Mamallapuram seven years ago. It was however their third meeting in under two years – all of them on the sidelines of multilateral meetings.

During their 40-minute-long meeting, Xi said the two countries had moved from a “new start” after their Kazan meeting in October 2024 to a “new elevation” over the past two years, pointing to the resumption of institutional exchanges, an expansion in areas of cooperation and record bilateral trade. “This situation has not come easily and is worth cherishing,” he said, in the readout issued by the Chinese foreign ministry.

As per the Indian readout, the two leaders “welcomed the steady progress in India-China bilateral relations since their last meeting in Tianjin in August 2025”.

The two sides also sought to give the thaw a broader political basis, with Modi stressing that India and China should take a “strategic and long term perspective” of their relationship and that differences should not become disputes.

“Prime Minister highlighted that both sides must be guided by three........

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