‘Common interest for both countries’: China on Xi’s ‘secret’ letter diplomacy with Indian leadership

A day after a media report suggested that Beijing made a quiet outreach to New Delhi in March to test the waters on improving ties, China on Friday said that improving ties with India is in the interest of both countries.

China said the two sides have taken steps to steadily stabilise relations after a meeting between President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year.

“The improvement of Sino-Indian relations is a common interest for both countries, as well as the result of joint efforts by both sides,” MoneyControl quoted China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs as saying on Friday in a written reply to questions.

There was no “secret diplomacy” between the two countries, only “normal communication and interaction,” it added.

On Thursday, Bloomberg News reported that China quietly approached India earlier this year in an effort to reset bilateral relations. According to an Indian official familiar with the matter, Chinese President Xi Jinping wrote to Indian President Droupadi Murmu in March, expressing concern over potential US-India agreements that could impact China’s strategic interests.

China’s Foreign Ministry on Friday referenced a meeting between President Xi and PM Modi in Kazan, Russia, in October last year, stating that the engagement marked a turning point that helped revive diplomatic dialogue between the two nations.

“The competent authorities of China and India have earnestly implemented the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, promoted the resumption of institutional dialogue and conducted normal exchanges,” said the ministry.

The thaw in relations between India and China has gathered pace in recent months, as both countries take concrete steps to ease a long-running border standoff. The renewed engagement comes ahead of PM Modi’s visit to China this weekend — his first in seven years.

“China stands ready to work with India to view and handle China-India relations from a strategic and long-term perspective,” the country’s Foreign Ministry said in its statement.

PM Modi is expected to hold bilateral meetings with Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin on August 31–September 1.

In a statement on Thursday, Modi said he remains committed to working with SCO members to tackle shared challenges and strengthen regional cooperation.

A Friday editorial in China’s state-run Global Times called the warming India-China ties a strategic and economic imperative amid shifting global geopolitics.

“Today, as the ‘twin engines’ of Asia’s economic growth, key representatives of the Global South, and members of the SCO, BRICS, and the G20, China and India share a mission to push the international order toward greater democracy and fairness,” the newspaper said.

With inputs from agencies