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India and China were seeking to “move ahead” with their relationship, New Delhi’s foreign minister has said, as China’s top diplomat started a visit to ease tension between the world’s two most populous countries.
The neighbours have been locked in a five-year stand-off sparked by a deadly border clash in 2020. But the disruption brought by US President Donald Trump’s trade war has created an opening for the rival Asian powers to seek to repair ties, analysts said.
“Having seen a difficult period in our relationship, our two nations now seek to move ahead,” Indian foreign minister S Jaishankar told Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, on Monday in New Delhi, adding that the visit was an opportunity to “review” bilateral ties and “exchange views on . . . some issues of mutual interest”.
Wang is set to meet Narendra Modi on Tuesday, two weeks before the Indian prime minister’s first visit to China in seven years.
In an oblique reference to Trump’s trade war, Jaishankar noted that “when the world’s two largest nations meet, it is natural that the international situation will be discussed”.
Jaishankar said that the visit would cover economic and trade issues, including cross-border trade, as well as pilgrimages, people-to-people contacts and river data sharing. Wang will also meet India’s national security adviser Ajit Doval to discuss “de-escalation” of border tensions.
China and India have been at loggerheads for decades, but relations hit a recent nadir after 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese troops were killed in clashes along their disputed Himalayan border in 2020.
Tensions jumped again this year over China’s weapons supplies, including fighter jets, to Pakistan during a four-day cross-border conflict in May.
A thaw between Beijing and New Delhi began last year, after they agreed on patrols of their 3,500km border.
But it has shown signs of accelerating since Trump sharply increased tariffs on both countries this year, particularly India, which was pursuing an increasingly close relationship with the US in a joint front against China in the region.
Modi is expected to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping at a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a China-led regional trade and security hub, in Tianjin from August 31.
Modi and Xi held their first bilateral meeting in five years in October at a summit of Brics nations in Kazan, Russia, in the wake of the agreement on border patrols.
Praveen Donthi, senior analyst for India with the Crisis Group, said Modi’s visit marked “a significant step in the strategic re-engagement”.
“After five years of heightened tensions, it was time to engage and restart economic co-operation,” he said. “Trump’s tariff war could have, at best, provided much-needed clarity to New Delhi.”
This month, Trump imposed a 50 per cent tariff on India — one of the highest levels among Washington’s trade partners — over the country’s purchases of Russian oil, which the US president argues is helping fuel Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
The US and China, meanwhile, extended a tariff truce last week for another 90 days, staving off triple-digit duties.
“The two countries are reacting to Trump’s tariffs,” said Amit Ranjan, a research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Institute of South Asian Studies. “It’s a tactical move, not a big policy shift.”
China’s moves to improve its relationship with India mirror its efforts to court other important trading partners, including the EU and Australia, as it tries to stymie US efforts to isolate Beijing.
China and India have discussed resuming direct flights, which have been suspended since 2020, as early as this year, as well as easing trade barriers and reopening border trade at three Himalayan crossings.
India’s foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said ahead of the visit that New Delhi has “remained engaged with the Chinese side to facilitate the resumption of border trade” through specific trade points.
China is India’s largest trading partner in goods, with the south Asian country exporting more than $14bn in the 2024-25 financial year and importing a record $113bn of goods.
