The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, said that New Delhi was committed to improving the ties with Beijing at a key meeting with President Xi Jinping of China on Sunday, since both countries resolved aside the differences of a border confrontation of years.
Modi is in China for the first time in seven years to attend a two -day meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), together with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other leaders of the center, southern and southeast of Asia and the Middle East in a sample of solidarity of the Global South.
“We are committed to progress in our relationships based on mutual respect, trust and sensibilities,” Modi to XI told XI during the meeting outside the summit, according to a video clip published in the official X account of the Indian leader.
The bilateral meeting took place five days after Washington imposed punishing 50 percent rates to Indian goods due to Russian oil purchases in New Delhi. Analysts say XI and Modi are looking to present a united front against Western pressure.
Modi said that an atmosphere of “peace and stability” has been created on his disputed border of the Himalayas, the site of a prolonged military confrontation after mortal confrontations of troops in 2020, which frozen most of the areas of cooperation between the strategic rivals with nuclear weapons.
He added that an agreement between both nations had been reached with respect to border management, without giving details.
“We must … not let the border problem define the general relationship of China-India”, the Chinese state media Xinhua He reported that Xi said.
China-India ties could be “stable and high-range” if both parties focus on seeing each other as partners instead of rivals, XI added.
Both leaders had an advanced meeting in Russia last year after reaching an agreement of the border patrol, triggering a tentative thaw in ties that has accelerated in recent weeks when New Delhi seeks to protect against the renewed tariff threats of Washington.
The direct flights between the two nations, which have been suspended since 2020, “resume,” Modi added, without providing a term.
China had agreed to lift export curbs in rare earths, fertilizers and tunnel drilling machines this month during a key visit to India by China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
China opposes Washington’s pronounced tariffs about India and “will be firmly with India,” said Chinese ambassador to India Xu Feihong.
For decades, Washington thoroughly cultivated ties with New Delhi in the hope that he would act as a regional counterweight for Beijing.
In recent months, China has allowed Indian pilgrims to visit Buddhist sites in Tibet, and both countries have raised the restrictions of reciprocal tourist visas.
“Both India and China dedicate themselves to what is probably a long and tense process of defining a new balance in the relationship,” said Loj Kewalramani, an expert in non-india relationships in the group of experts from the Takshashila institution in Bengaluru.
However, other long -term irritants remain in the relationship.
China is the largest bilateral business partner in India, but the long -term commercial deficit, a persistent source of frustration for Indian officials, reached a record of $ 99.2 billion this year.
Meanwhile, a Chinese mega-dam planned in the Tibet has caused fears of massive water diversion that could reduce water flows in the Major Brahmaputra river up to 85 percent at the dry season, according to the estimates of the Indian government.
India also houses the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader who Beijing sees as a dangerous separatist influence. Pakistan, with which India had a brief military conflict in May, also benefits from the staunch Chinese economic and military support.
PM Shehbaz in China for Sco Summit
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is also ready to attend the high -level Moot SCO. Upon arriving in China yesterday with the vice president Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ishaq Dar, the prime minister said he hoped to meet Xi and other world leaders.
According to a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (FO), Prime Minister Shehbaz leads a delegation of Pakistan to participate in the Summit of the Council of State Heads (CHS) of the OCS from August 31 to September 1.
The SCO includes China, India, Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzista, Tayikistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus. Other 16 countries are affiliated as observers or “dialogue partners.”
The leaders of Mongolia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Turkiye, Egypt, Maldives, Myanmar and others, as well as the United Nations Chief and Heads of several regional and international organizations, will also attend as part of the expanded format.
Prime Minister Shehbaz is scheduled to reaffirm Pakistan’s commitment to promote multilateralism, improve regional security and advance sustainable development, said Fo. It is also expected to have bilateral meetings with other OCS leaders and invited members to “strengthen diplomatic relations.”
On the commitments in China, the FO said that the prime minister would hold meetings with President XI and Prime Minister Li Qiang “during which multifaceted dimensions of the Bilateral Cooperation of Pakistan-China would be discussed.”
XI yesterday began to welcome leaders, including Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and Egyptian Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly.
China and Russia have used the SCO, sometimes promoted as a counter of the NATO military alliance dominated by Western, to deepen ties with the states of Central Asia.
