NEW DELHI: Ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s arrival in New Delhi for the ongoing Brics Summit, Chinese Ambassador to India Xu Feihong said on Friday that China will work with India to ensure the two countries remain “friends enjoying good-neighbourliness and partners helping each other succeed.”“China and India are arranging a bilateral meeting between President Xi and Prime Minister Modi. This will be the third consecutive year that the two leaders have met, following their meetings in Kazan and Tianjin,” the Chinese ambassador wrote on X.“China will work with India to implement the strategic guidance of the two leaders, approach bilateral relations from a strategic and long-term perspective, strengthen communication, enhance cooperation, properly manage differences, and remain friends enjoying good-neighborliness and partners helping each other succeed,” he added.Xi will arrive in New Delhi on Saturday to attend the Brics Summit, marking his first visit to India in nearly seven years. He is scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting with PM Modi on the sidelines of the summit.The Chinese leader’s visit is expected to be a high-profile diplomatic engagement, with implications for ongoing efforts to stabilise bilateral ties between New Delhi and Beijing following the military clashes in Ladakh in 2020.
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Xi last visited India in 2019 for an informal summit with PM Modi in Mamallapuram near Chennai.He had earlier visited Goa in 2016 to attend the Brics Summit and made his first visit to India in September 2014, when he held extensive talks with Modi. The 2014 visit took place during the first terms of both leaders.Xi’s forthcoming visit is significant as it comes amid efforts by India and China to normalise relations after a prolonged freeze following the 2020 standoff. PM Modi met Xi in Kazan, Russia, in 2024 during that year’s Brics Summit. The two leaders met again in September last year during PM Modi’s visit to China for an SCO Summit in Tianjin.As the current chair of the grouping, India will host the 18th Brics Summit in New Delhi on September 12 and 13.(With PTI inputs)