PM Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping to meet on Aug 31 on sidelines of SCO Summit

August 28, 2025

New Delhi/Beijing: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Tianjin on Sunday.

PM Modi will be in China on the invitation of President Xi to attend the SCO Summit after concluding his two-day visit to Japan.

This will be PM Modi’s first visit to China in the last seven years and the first since the Galwan Valley faceoff in June 2020 between soldiers of the two countries at the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Both leaders last met on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Russia’s Kazan in 2024. A breakthrough in bilateral talks came after India and China reached an agreement on patrolling along the nearly 3,500-km LAC, ending a four-year-long border confrontation.

Chinese Envoy Sees Visit as ‘Fresh Impetus’

On August 21, China’s Ambassador to India Xu Feihong said PM Modi’s visit to Tianjin for the SCO Summit will give a fresh impetus to the improvement and development of relations between both countries.

“The visit of Prime Minister Modi to China will be a very important event not only for the SCO but for the bilateral relationship between the two countries. A working group from China and India is working very hard to make this visit a successful one. From our side, we attach great importance to this visit. It will be a very successful one,” Xu told reporters in New Delhi.

Preparations and Diplomatic Engagements

On August 19, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called on PM Modi in New Delhi, delivering a message and invitation from President Xi Jinping for the two-day SCO Summit beginning August 31.

“Glad to meet Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Since my meeting with President Xi in Kazan last year, India-China relations have made steady progress guided by respect for each other’s interests and sensitivities. I look forward to our next meeting in Tianjin on the sidelines of the SCO Summit,” PM Modi posted on X after the meeting.

During the meeting, PM Modi emphasised the importance of maintaining peace and tranquillity on the border and reiterated India’s commitment to a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable resolution of the boundary question.

PMO Statement on Bilateral Progress

“Prime Minister welcomed the steady and positive progress in bilateral ties since his meeting with President Xi in Kazan last year, guided by mutual respect, mutual interest and mutual sensitivity, including the resumption of the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.

“Prime Minister thanked President Xi for the invitation to the SCO Summit and conveyed his acceptance.

He expressed support for China’s Presidency of the SCO Summit and said that he looked forward to meeting President Xi in Tianjin.

The PM underlined that stable, predictable, and constructive ties between India and China will contribute significantly to regional and global peace and prosperity,” it added.

About the SCO

The SCO is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation established in Shanghai on June 15, 2001.

The member states are China, Russia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Iran and Belarus.

The SCO has two observer states — Afghanistan and Mongolia — and 14 dialogue partners, including Turkey, Kuwait, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Bahrain, the Maldives, Myanmar and the United Arab Emirates.