The 18th BRICS summit in New Delhi produced the images that diplomacy exists to manufacture. After seven years, President Xi Jinping was again on Indian soil. Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi met him on the sidelines. The two sides spoke of a strategic, long-term view of the relationship, of differences that should not become disputes, and of partners rather than rivals. Flights are returning. Institutional contacts have thickened. A New Delhi Declaration was adopted without a public rupture. For a relationship that reached a six-decade low after Galwan in 2020, this is not trivial. It is also not friendship.