Wang Yi In India: In a massive move towards improving bilateral ties post the 2020 border clash, China on Tuesday not only agreed to initiate talks for the delimitation of the unsettled border, but it also committed to supplying rare-earth minerals and fertilisers to India. The issues were discussed during the two-day visit of Chinese Foreign Minister and member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee Wang Yi to India.
On Tuesday, he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval where all these issues were discussed. Prime Minister Modi, on the other hand, informed Minister Wang that he will be visiting Tianjin for the SCO Summit that China is hosting on 31 July and 1 August.
“Glad to meet Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Since my meeting with President Xi in Kazan last year, India-China relations have made steady progress guided by respect for each other’s interests and sensitivities. I look forward to our next meeting in Tianjin on the sidelines of the SCO Summit. Stable, predictable, constructive ties between India and China will contribute significantly to regional as well as global peace and prosperity,” Prime Minister Modi said in a social media post after his meeting with the Chinese Foreign Minister.
During the meeting, Minister Wang handed over the formal invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping to Modi for the SCO Summit, which China will be hosting in Tianjin.
Prime Minister Modi also raised the issue of border tensions with the Chinese Foreign Minister and “emphasised the importance of maintaining peace and tranquillity on the border, and reiterated India’s commitment to a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable resolution of the boundary question,” said a readout issued by the Prime Minister’s Office.
According to a statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs, the Prime Minister underlined, “Stable, predictable, and constructive ties between India and China will contribute significantly to regional and global peace and prosperity.”
Both sides decided to set up an Expert Group, under the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) “to explore Early Harvest in boundary delimitation in the India-China border areas,” said the MEA.
“On the border issue, we reached new consensus on conducting regular management and control, maintaining peace and tranquility in the border areas, properly handling sensitive points, and initiating boundary delimitation negotiations where conditions permit,” said the Chinese Foreign Ministry in its official readout after Wang’s meeting with PM Modi.
‘Borders Have Been Quiet’
The border issue was discussed in detail during the 24th Meeting of the Special Representatives, which Wang co-chaired with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, on Tuesday.
China has also said it will resume the supplies of fertilizers, rare earth minerals and tunnel boring machines to India even as both countries seek to normalise the ties as it existed before the border clash of May 2020 began, official sources told ABP Live.
Both Wang and Doval are ‘Special Representatives’ for their respective countries on the boundary question.
“In the last nine months, there has been an upward trend, borders have been quiet, there is peace and tranquility, our bilateral engagements have been more substantive … We have profited a lot since then (when Modi and Xi met in Kazan in October 2024). The new environment that has been created has helped us in moving ahead in the various areas that we were working on,” Doval said in his opening remarks during the meeting.
India and China are taking slow but steady steps in improving the bilateral ties that plummeted in an unprecedented manner since a bitter border clash erupted at the eastern Ladakh sector of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in May 2020. The military standoff, which is still continuing in the border areas, albeit moderated, witnessed the killing of 20 Indian soldiers by the Chinese PLA at the Galwan River Valley area on 15 June.
In 2020 during border faceoff India had likened the relationship between New Delhi and Beijing to that of 1962 when both sides fought a full-fledged war. Post the Galwan incident, India banned 59 Chinese apps, including the popular TikTok and WeChat platforms, leaving millions of users in lurch. Countrywide calls were made to boycott Chinese goods even as the Modi government issued advisories to cancel Chinese contracts with public sector companies.
Taiwan Remains Sticky Issue
Despite the recent bonhomie between both sides, the issue of Taiwan being a “part of China” turned out to be a thorny matter even as the Chinese side discussed the matter with India.
In a statement issued Monday after Minister Wang met External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, China said, “Stable, cooperative, and forward-looking India-China relations serve the interests of both countries. Taiwan is part of China.”
However, India maintained that while the Chinese side raised the issue of Taiwan, New Delhi made it clear to the Chinese side that there was “no change in its position on this issue.”
“Like the rest of the world, India had a relationship with Taiwan that focuses on economic, technological and cultural ties and that this would continue. The Indian side noted that China also cooperates with Taiwan in these very domains,” said the MEA in an official release.
“I think the Chinese are merely using the issue as leverage at a time when they know the Indian side is coming with a lot of asks – essentially trying to counter pressure from India by throwing in what they say is a ‘core interest’ for them. The Indian side’s response was adequate,” said Jabin Jacob, Associate Professor of International Relations at Shiv Nadar University.
In a statement issued hours before Minister Wang’s departure from India, China said it will support India in hosting the 2026 BRICS Summit while the Indian side will support China in hosting the 2027 BRICS Summit.
From Delhi, Wang Yi left for Pakistan where both sides will be holding a strategic dialogue.
Jacob also added, “During the Tianjin visit by PM Modi, we should only expect the low-hanging fruit, of what we have heard of for some time – the resumption of direct flights and maybe the return of journalists. But a major boundary agreement is unlikely to come on the sidelines of a multilateral summit.”
Nayanima Basu is a senior independent journalist.
