New Delhi (TIP)- Further steps to normalise India–China ties, including active management of the border to ensure peace, and preserving the global economic order amid turbulence created by US trade policies will be in focus when Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday, Aug 31.
Modi, who is travelling to China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit, and Xi are set to meet in the northern city of Tianjin on Sunday afternoon for the second time since India and China reached an understanding last October on ending a military standoff on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) that began in April-May 2020. The faceoff took bilateral relations to their lowest point since the border war of 1962.
At his departure, Modi said India is an active and constructive member of the 10-nation bloc. During India’s presidency of the SCO in 2023, the country introduced new ideas and initiated collaboration in innovation, health and cultural exchanges, he said.
India remains committed to working with the SCO members to address “shared challenges and deepen regional cooperation”, he said. “I also look forward to meeting President Xi Jinping, [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin and other leaders on the sidelines of the summit,” Modi said.
This is also Modi’s first visit to China since the start of the LAC standoff, and the meeting will be an opportunity for the leaders to take stock of progress since last year in normalising ties and addressing the border dispute, especially forward movement through resumption of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra to Tibet in April, resumption of tourist visas for Chinese nationals in July, and the decision to explore an “early harvest” in boundary delimitation during talks between the Special Representatives this month.
The Indian side expects to move step-by-step in the normalisation process and there is a recognition on both sides of the need to keep the border peaceful through active management, the people cited above said, requesting anonymity. “The borders have been broadly stable since the events of 2020,” a person said, pointing to the need to build on this stability.
While people-to-people contacts have been the focus of recent confidence-building measures, such as the revival of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra after a gap of five years and resumption of tourist visas to Chinese nationals, bilateral economic ties also need to stabilise going forward, the people said. “There is a need to avoid trade barriers and restrictions so as not to hurt the fragile trust and bring in more confidence,” the person cited above said, in a reference to China’s recent curbs on exports of commodities such as fertilisers, rare earth minerals and heavy machinery.
During a visit to India last week for talks with National Security Adviser Ajit Doval under the Special Representatives mechanism, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi had assured his interlocutors that Beijing will address India’s key concerns related to export restrictions on fertilisers, rare earths and tunnel boring machines.
The recent thaw in bilateral relations has apparently been spurred by the geo-economic churn caused by the trade and tariff policies of the Trump administration in the US, and the people said emerging economies such as India and China have a common interest in preserving the global economic order amid the ongoing turbulence. “Recent events have made the imperatives of multipolarity even stronger,” the person cited above said. “India’s priority is growth and development and a growing China can be a contributor, at a time when established markets are facing uncertainty.” Source: HT
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