Five days after the United States imposed heavy tariffs on Indian goods, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated to Chinese President Xi Jinping that he is committed to enhancing bilateral ties. This indicates a growing kinship with Beijing.
On the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, which kicks off in Tianjin on Sunday, Modi told Xi, “We are committed to progressing our relations based on mutual respect, trust, and sensitivities.”
In a show of global solidarity, Modi, along with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and other leaders from Asia and the Middle East, is in China for the first time in seven years.
The Indian leader shared a video of his conversation with the Chinese leader on his X account.
Xi also pledged to improve cooperation and resolve border disputes with India. According to state broadcaster CCTV, he stated that he hoped the Tianjin meeting would “further elevate” and “promote the sustained, healthy, and stable development of bilateral relations.”
According to Xi, the two countries should “not let the border issue define the overall China-India relationship,” adding that both countries should put their main interests at risk for economic growth.
China-India relations will flourish and advance steadily as long as they keep their commitment to the overarching goal of being partners, not adversaries, and providing development opportunities, not threats, according to Xi.
“Getting closer to Beijing”
After the US, a long-time ally, imposed 50 percent tariffs on Indian goods on Wednesday over New Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil, a move that may have accelerated his nation’s ongoing thawing of relations with China.
The days of the US using India as a counterweight against China are over, according to Al Jazeera’s Katrina Yu, who is reporting from Tianjin, where the two-day SCO summit is taking place.
Modi claimed at the meeting on Sunday that “peace and stability” had been established on the disputed Himalayan border, which Indian and Chinese troops had clashed with in 2020.
Modi claimed that India and China had come to terms with border management and that direct flights between the two nations, which have been suspended since 2020, were “resuming.”
According to Al Jazeera’s Yu, the deadly clashes had marked a “low point” in relations between the strategic nuclear-armed adversaries, but relations have improved in recent months, with officials “talking and meeting consistently about the border” and other issues.
Both China and India have recently lifted reciprocal tourist visa restrictions, and China has recently allowed Indian pilgrims to visit Buddhist sites in Tibet.
This month, China’s foreign minister Wang Yi made a key , visit , to , to India , announcement that it would lift export restrictions on rare earths, fertilisers, and tunnel boring machines.
Chinese Xu Feihong, the country’s ambassador to India, stated this month that his country would “firmly stand” with New Delhi and opposed to Washington’s stringent tariffs on India.
powerful bloc
More than 20 world leaders are present at the SCO summit, including Modi and Putin.
China and Russia have occasionally compared the SCO to the NATO military alliance. The summit is the first since Donald Trump’s White House resumption this year.
According to Dylan Loh, an assistant professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, “China has long sought to present the SCO as a non-Western-led power bloc that promotes a new type of international relations, which it claims is more democratic.”
With 16 additional nations collaborating as observers or “dialogue partners,” the SCO, which was established in 2001, includes Belarus, India, India, Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Belarus.
More than three billion people live on the planet’s landmass, or almost a quarter of it, making up SCO members’ total, or almost a quarter of the world’s population.
