Beijing, Sep 11: Ahead of President Xi Jinping’s visit to India for the BRICS summit and bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, China on Friday said both countries should handle differences properly and view their ties from a strategic and long-term perspective.

President Xi will arrive in New Delhi on Saturday to attend the BRICS summit, 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 on Saturday.

Asked how China viewed the Modi-Xi meeting, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a media briefing here that this will be the third year in a row for the two leaders to meet with each other, following their meetings in Kazan and Tianjin.

“China will work with India to act on the strategic guidance of the two leaders, handle the bilateral relations from a strategic height and long-term perspective, step up communication, enhance cooperation, properly handle differences, and be friends enjoying good-neighbourliness and partners helping each other succeed,” she said.

About the BRICS summit, Mao said it is a key platform for solidarity and cooperation among emerging markets and developing countries.

“President Xi will attend and address the upcoming summit, have in-depth exchanges with other leaders on major issues including the current international situation, the development of BRICS mechanisms, and deepening practical cooperation, and put forward China’s important initiatives and propositions, charting the course for the high-quality development of greater BRICS cooperation,” she said.

She said that China is ready to work with fellow BRICS countries for steady and sustained progress in greater BRICS cooperation to contribute to building a community with a shared future for humanity.

About the significance of the New Delhi summit, which is taking place amid the Iran-US conflict and the Ukraine-Russia war, Mao said China advocates a common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable approach to security.

“We are committed to promoting the political settlement of hotspot issues through dialogue. We look forward to working with fellow BRICS countries to promote dialogue and negotiation to resolve differences and jointly safeguard regional and global peace and stability,” she said.

Xi’s visit is expected to be a high-profile diplomatic engagement with implications for the ongoing efforts to stabilise bilateral ties between the two Asian powers as well as for BRICS cooperation amid a volatile global situation.

As the current chair of the influential grouping, India will host the 18th BRICS Summit on September 12 and 13 in New Delhi.

Xi last visited India in 2019 for an informal summit with 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 came 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 Eastern Ladakh standoff.

Ahead of Xi’s visit, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held extensive talks in Beijing last month on the boundary issue, maintaining peace and tranquillity along the border and steps to improve bilateral relations.

During the 25th round of Special Representatives’ talks held in Beijing on August 25, the two sides reached an eight-point consensus and agreed to advance discussions on an Early and Substantial Harvest of boundary delimitation and border management.

Against the backdrop of these substantive discussions on the boundary and wider bilateral issues, a Modi-Xi meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS summit is expected to be closely watched for indications of the future course of India-China relations.

BRICS, originally comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, expanded in 2024 to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the UAE and Saudi Arabia, with Indonesia joining in 2025.

Belarus, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan and Vietnam became BRICS partner countries last year.

India is a founding member of the BRICS and has previously held its chairship three times, in 2012, 2016 and 2021.

India assumed its fourth BRICS chairship on January 1. The year 2026 also marks a milestone as BRICS completes 20 years since its establishment.

Cairo, Sep 11: Saudi airstrikes hit the rebel-held Mokha airport in Yemen on Friday, an Iranian-backed Houthi broadcaster reported, a day after the Houthis entered the key port city on the Red Sea, bringing them closer to the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Their advance further threatens commercial shipping on an important alternative to the Strait of Hormuz.

Earlier Friday, Iran’s government called for an end to Saudi Arabia’s blockade of Yemen, throwing its support behind its ally, the Houthis. In its first statement since the rebels entered the port, Iran’s Foreign Ministry also called for a return to negotiations between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis.

The rebels’ capture of Mokha, overlooking tanker routes out of the Red Sea, could boost Iran’s strategy of driving up world oil and gas prices to pressure the United States, experts say. It also raises concerns of a new front opening after more than six months of war in the region — one in which Saudi Arabia is forced to respond.

Experts say the developments in Yemen could give Tehran more leverage in any negotiations with the United States. On Wednesday, the spokesperson for Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard called for any negotiated settlement with the US to include Yemen, the first explicit reference to that front.

Events threaten a key Strait of Hormuz alternative

The Houthis’ entry into Mokha on Thursday was their biggest territorial gain in years against their Saudi-backed Yemeni opponents. It brought them within 80 kilometres of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, an important alternative for global shipping as Iran targets vessels on the Strait of Hormuz.

The Houthis have already hiked up attacks on Saudi shipping in Bab el-Mandeb and the Red Sea since declaring a blockade there in July, as well as oil infrastructure inside Saudi Arabia. The Houthis said the move was in response to the kingdom’s blockade of Houthi-held parts of Yemen, in place for years.

Disruption to the waterway could mean trouble for all shipping and for the price of crude oil, which has now soared again. Saudi Arabia has increasingly relied on the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb to export its crude since Iran has been targeting vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. About 12 per cent of the world’s goods are typically shipped through the strait.

Shipping through the Bab al-Mandeb had fallen by about 60 per cent since the Houthis began attacking some ships there in late 2023 while expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Shipping increased this year as Saudi Arabia sought alternatives to the Strait of Hormuz, but renewed Houthi threats have “curtailed” that activity, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence.

Saudi Arabia, which earlier this week said it had always offered “opportunities for negotiation,” also has said it has the right to defend itself in response to the Houthis’ blockade. The foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia spoke Thursday about diplomatic efforts to “restore stability” to the region, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on social media.

The fighting risks a return to civil war

In a statement released Friday, the National Defence Council of Yemen’s Saudi-backed and internationally recognized government on Thursday strongly condemned the Houthis’ renewed attacks on Saudi Arabia.

The council also acknowledged that Yemen’s government is on the front line of freedom of navigation, and called for international support as the Houthis swept along the Red Sea coast toward the Bab el-Mandeb.

The escalating fighting threatens to end a fragile truce that had largely halted Yemen’s civil war since 2022.

At stake are the 40 million people in the Arab world’s poorest country who fear a return to the conflict that killed 150,000 and brought many others to the brink of famine.

The Houthis have been at war with Yemen’s government since 2014, when the rebels swept from their mountainous heartland and seized much of northern and central Yemen. Saudi Arabia entered the war the following year on behalf of the government.

Srinagar, Sep 11: Europe is witnessing growing anxiety over Islam and Muslims, but fears of an Islamic takeover of the continent are unfounded, according to a report published in The Economist, which says the real dangers lie in Islamist extremism and growing right-wing fear of Islam.

The report, titled “The truth and the lies about Islam in Europe” and published on September 10, said panic about Islam was spreading across several European countries, with large sections of the population increasingly viewing Islam as incompatible with Western values. It cited recent political developments in Germany, France and Britain as examples of the growing influence of anti-Muslim rhetoric.

However, the report said some of the most alarming claims about Islam’s presence in Europe were not supported by evidence.

“Europe faces no Islamic takeover, no mass radicalisation of Muslims and no erasure of its culture,” the report said. It added that Europe does not have “no-go zones”, sharia is not becoming part of national law and there is no demographic “great replacement” under way.

The report noted that Muslims currently account for about 6% of Europe’s population of more than 500 million. While migrants from Muslim-majority countries generally have more children than native-born populations, fertility rates tend to converge within two generations, it said.

It also said most Muslim immigrants were seeking to build lives in their adopted countries rather than impose the societies they had left behind. Their children, according to the report, often perform better educationally than their parents. In Britain, it cited figures showing that 67% of Bangladeshis who sat standard tests in 2021 were enrolled in university by age 19, compared with 38% of white Britons.

The report nevertheless acknowledged socially conservative views among some Muslims. Its polling found that 52% of British Muslims considered homosexuality wrong.

It stressed that socially conservative views do not automatically make Muslims a security threat, while distinguishing Islam from Islamism.

“Islam isn’t a problem; Islamism can be,” the report said, describing Islamism as a political ideology seeking to promote Islamic principles through the state.

At the same time, the report warned that anti-Muslim policies could deepen divisions. Mass deportations, segregation and dress bans, it said, could frighten Muslims, inhibit integration and potentially push some towards extremists.

The report concluded that Europe’s Muslims are increasingly integrating into their societies, drawing parallels with earlier migrant communities. “Muslims will, too—if division and paranoia are not allowed to get in the way,” it said.