Chinese news agency Xinhua’s dispatches from New Delhi centered squarely on Xi’s own rhetoric.
The state news agency reported Xi told the summit’s opening session that BRICS countries should “firmly stand on the right side of history, strive to be a pioneer of the times, steer the international order toward greater justice and equity, and work together to build a community with a shared future for humanity.”
Global Times argued Xi’s remarks “underscor[ed] the unstoppable trend of multipolarity and the rising strength of the Global South” — framing that positions BRICS explicitly as a counterweight to a US-centered global order, even as the outlet stopped short of naming the United States as an adversary.
Xinhua credited Xi with calling on the bloc to pioneer “innovation-driven development,” including deeper cooperation on artificial intelligence and open-source technology.Follow Federal Policy
A China Daily editorial, -- sharpened that framing considerably, describing “countercurrents of unilateralism and power politics” as “surging” globally, with “multilateralism and the international order… coming under strain.”
The editorial argued this environment should “further inspire the BRICS countries” to embrace Xi’s vision — language that, while not naming Washington directly, was consistent with China’s state media’s long-running practice of using “unilateralism” as shorthand criticism of US trade and foreign policy.
Chinese Media delighted over A "Border Thaw" With Modi's India
The American coverage treated India’s diplomacy as a story about 'distance' from Washington.
Chinese coverage told a parallel story about closing distance between New Delhi and Beijing.
Xinhua noted Xi’s trip marked his first visit to India since October 2019, and explicitly tied the summit to “sustained efforts by New Delhi and Beijing to stabilize relations following the 2020 border standoff”.
Global Times gave this theme its own dedicated headline treatment, reporting that the “Xi-Modi meeting lifts ties to new phase of confidence-building”.
That framing represents a notable shift in tone from Chinese state media’s historically guarded coverage of India relations, and suggests Beijing’s press apparatus treated the bilateral thaw as being at least as newsworthy as the multilateral summit itself.
In the west, CNBC framed what the imagery itself was doing politically, noting that when Xi, Putin and Modi were photographed together in China the previous year — “smiling, holding hands and chatting animatedly” — the images went viral.
This weekend’s meeting revived that same visual against “an increasingly complicated geopolitical backdrop.”
CNBC cited Indian foreign policy scholar Sanjay Bajpaee and analyst Aparna Shidore for a more measured read, both arguing that BRICS remains what Shidore called a “pragmatic club for limited purposes,” focused on
- Development,
- Trade and
- Institutional reform rather than functioning as an explicit anti-American bloc.
**** India specifically wants BRICS to promote a “non-Western” worldview without tipping into being “explicitly anti-Western.” -- was another view.
Even so, the western media noted the bloc’s divisions have surfaced “most obviously and most clearly” over security issues, pointing to Iran and the UAE sitting in the same grouping despite being on opposite sides of the Middle East war.
The US coverage sharpened considerably was on Iran specifically.
Fox News Digital ahead of the summit flagged Iran-India relations as one of the weekend’s central storylines, previewing that Pezeshkian and Modi would “highlight trade, connectivity, energy cooperation and regional developments” in their bilateral meeting.
It felt all these were a 'notably warm agenda' given Iran’s isolation from Washington.
Fox quoted Harsh V. Pant of Observer Research Foundation describing India’s core challenge as “managing contradiction”.
“New Delhi is trying to keep the focus on practical cooperation — from energy security to connectivity and development — rather than ideological confrontation.”
The contrast with US coverage is sharpest in what didn’t appear.
Xinhua’s, China Daily’s, People’s Daily’s and Global Times’ reporting reviewed for this piece made no substantive mention of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s defiant remarks to Indian religious leaders, nor of the joint declaration’s language on IAEA-safeguarded nuclear facilities that US wire coverage read
-- as indirect criticism of American and Israeli strikes on Iran.
Where Xinhua’s own preview coverage did reference regional tension, it was folded into broader, non-specific language about BRICS “contributing stability and positive momentum to a world undergoing profound changes” —
a formulation that acknowledges instability exists without assigning it to any particular actor or conflict.
US news agencies coverage of the summit’s actual joint declaration reinforced a key messaging.
The Associated Press (Ameircan) — whose reporting was picked up widely across US outlets — reported that BRICS leaders expressed concern over “deliberate attacks” on civilian infrastructure and nuclear facilities protected under IAEA safeguards.
This characterizes the language as “seen as indirect criticism of U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.”
The AP noted this marked a notable shift in tone:
in May, BRICS foreign ministers had failed to even agree on a joint statement over the Iran war,
--- forcing India to issue a more limited “chair’s summary” instead.
The New Delhi declaration’s language, however -- represented the bloc actually finding consensus language critical of Washington’s closest Middle East ally where it previously could not.
ends
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