The biggest highlight of the 18th BRICS Summit underway in New Delhi is the thaw in relations between China and India. China’s President Xi Jinping’s visit is his first to India since 2019. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited China in 2025 for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting. These interactions follow a deterioration in relations between the two countries after a border dispute erupted in 2020.
Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit India for the first time in nearly seven years to attend the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi on September 12-13, China’s foreign ministry said on Thursday (In picture: PM Modi with Xi Jinping) (Reuters)
What promise or potential does this diplomatic thaw and possible détente hold? China is already the world’s second largest economy. India will soon become the third largest. To be sure, the two have a large gap between them. Here is what a non-zero-sum-game Sino-Indian relationship could do for the Global South as a whole.
This trend, if it were to continue, will only worsen the existing economic imbalance in developing countries which need outside capital and technical skills which often comes with FDI. If China and India can resolve their disputes and establish a mutually beneficial investment relationship, it could set the template for a larger economic engagement for the Global South. This engagement would position China not as an overwhelming economic force, but as a willing partner in economic cooperation. Whether or not it happens remains to be seen.
