CHINA'S foreign minister Wang Yi will visit India next week for talks on the border dispute as Delhi and Beijing are working to boost bilateral ties, with US president Donald Trump threatening tariffs against both countries.
It will be the second time Wang Yi will meet India's national security adviser Ajit Doval since a deadly clash in 2020 between Indian and Chinese troops, two people familiar with the matter said.
India’s prime minister Narendra Modi is set to meet Chinese president Xi Jinping at the end of the month when he travels to China – his first visit in seven years – to attend the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a regional security bloc.
Relations between India and China were further boosted in recent weeks amid new tensions in India-US ties after decades of progress, analysts said, as Trump imposed a 50 per cent tariff on Indian exports to the US – one of the highest levels among Washington's strategic partners.
The US and China, meanwhile, this week extended a tariff truce for another 90 days, staving off triple-digit duties on each other's goods.
China and India also agreed to resume direct flights suspended since 2020 and are discussing easing trade barriers, including reopening border trade at three Himalayan crossings.
"For a long time, China–India border trade cooperation has played an important role in improving the lives of people living along the border," China's foreign ministry said in a statement sent to AFP on Thursday (14).
It said both sides "reached a consensus on cross-border exchanges and cooperation, including resumption of border trade".
New Delhi's junior foreign minister, Kirti Vardhan Singh, told parliament last week that "India has engaged with the Chinese side to facilitate the resumption of border trade".
No restart date was given by either side.
The developments follow a thaw in India and China's five-year standoff after an agreement last October on patrolling their Himalayan border, which eased the strain on bilateral ties that had hurt trade, investment and air travel.
While border trade accounts for only a small portion of the $127.7 billion bilateral trade recorded in the last fiscal year, its revival is seen as a symbolic step toward normalising economic ties.
"We have remained engaged with the Chinese side to facilitate the resumption of border trade through all the designated trade points," India's foreign ministry spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal, told reporters on Thursday.
Beijing told Reuters it was also ready to resume border trade that had for a long time played an "important role in improving the lives of residents along the border and enhancing exchanges between the two peoples".
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson also said Beijing has been in close communication with New Delhi to "push for the resumption of direct flights as soon as possible".
Meanwhile, India’s government think-tank has proposed easing investment rules that effectively require additional scrutiny for Chinese companies — another sign of a potential shift in economic engagement.
However, ties between New Delhi and Washington have been strained by Trump's ultimatum for India to end its purchases of Russian oil, a key source of revenue for Moscow as it wages its military offensive in Ukraine.
Jaiswal said on Thursday the partnership between New Delhi and Washington had "weathered several transitions and challenges".
India hoped the "relationship will continue to move forward based on mutual respect and shared interests", he added.
India "stands ready" to support the efforts to end the Ukraine war and endorses the summit to be held between Trump and Russia’s president Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday (15), Jaiswal added.
(Agencies)
