Beijing highlights Xi, Modi agreement: China, India should be partners

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have agreed that China and India should be partners, which is the most important consensus the two leaders reached during their meeting, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

Xi and Modi met on the sidelines of the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi on Saturday, following their meetings in Tianjin, China in August 2025 and in Kazan, Russia in October 2024.

"President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Modi have met successfully for three consecutive years, reaching the most crucial consensus that China and India should be partners," Guo Jiakun, the spokesperson for the ministry, told a regular press conference.

The two leaders conducted "a candid and in-depth exchange of views on strategic, long-term and directional issues" concerning China-India relations, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Sunday while briefing reporters about the Chinese president's two-day visit to India for the BRICS summit.

During the meeting with Modi, Xi noted that China and India have different national realities.

"We should draw on each other's strengths, support each other, help each other succeed and develop together," he said.

To promote the steady and sustained development of China-India relations, Xi said the two neighbors should calibrate the direction with an objective and rational strategic perception, help each other succeed in the spirit of win-win cooperation, remove irritants with the political wisdom of mutual respect and mutual understanding, and contribute to a better world with open and inclusive multilateral coordination.

Modi said during the meeting that India has an independent foreign policy, that developing relations with China is not affected by any third party and that it will not allow any force to engage in anti-China activities on its territory.

China attaches great importance to the key statements made by the Indian prime minister, Guo told reporters on Monday.

The two leaders have agreed that China and India, as the world's two most populous countries and important members of the Global South, should focus on development as the greatest common denominator, strengthen friendly exchanges and mutually beneficial cooperation, improve the public perception of the bilateral relations, and promote the sound and steady development of economic and trade relations, the spokesperson said.

Both sides have agreed to support each other's BRICS chairmanship, promote Global South cooperation, advance world multipolarity and act as a force for stability and progress in a turbulent world, Guo added.

China will assume the BRICS presidency and host the 19th BRICS Summit next year.