India and China signalled a cautious thaw in their strained relationship on Monday, as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in New Delhi for a two-day visit aimed at stabilising ties that ruptured after deadly border clashes in 2020.
“India and China should see each other as partners, not adversaries or threats,” Wang told reporters after meeting his Indian counterpart, S Jaishankar. Relations, he said, were now on a “positive trend” toward cooperation.
The visit marks only the second ministerial-level meeting between the neighbours since the Galwan Valley clashes in Ladakh, where soldiers on both sides were killed in the bloodiest confrontation in decades.
Jaishankar struck a cautiously optimistic tone, saying the two sides were working to “move ahead from a difficult period in our ties”. The ministers discussed a range of issues including trade, river data sharing, and religious pilgrimages to Tibet.
On Tuesday, Wang also met India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, with both sides reaffirming progress in negotiations to resolve the long-running boundary dispute. “Stability has now been restored at the borders,” Wang said during delegation-level talks.
Signs of rapprochement
The two Asian powers have taken tentative steps to normalise relations since October last year, when they agreed on new patrolling arrangements along their contested Himalayan frontier. Beijing has since allowed Indian pilgrims to visit sites in Tibet, while New Delhi has resumed visas for Chinese tourists and revived talks on reopening border trade through designated passes.
There are also indications that direct flights between the two countries could resume later this year.
Wang’s trip is expected to prepare the ground for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s upcoming visit to China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit — his first in seven years. Reports suggest a possible bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, though neither side has confirmed it.
US pressure
The rapprochement comes as New Delhi’s ties with Washington face fresh strain. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump imposed additional 25 percent tariffs on Indian imports, raising overall duties to 50 percent — the steepest in Asia — in retaliation for India’s continued purchases of Russian oil and weapons.
White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro accused India of “cozying up to both Russia and China” in an opinion piece for the Financial Times, arguing that India was acting as a “global clearinghouse” for Moscow’s crude exports despite Western sanctions.
“If India wants to be treated as a strategic partner of the US, it needs to start acting like one,” Navarro wrote.
Multipolar ambitions
Speaking after his talks with Wang, Jaishankar pushed back against suggestions that India was aligning with any single power bloc. “We seek a fair, balanced and multipolar world order, including a multipolar Asia,” he said. “Reformed multilateralism is the call of the day.” For both Beijing and New Delhi, analysts say, the reset reflects a pragmatic calculation: stabilising a volatile border while navigating an increasingly fractured global order.
