Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said New Delhi is committed to strengthening links with Beijing at a key meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of a regional security forum on Sunday.
Moda is in China for the first time in seven years to attend a two-day meeting of the Shanghai cooperation organization, as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin and other leaders of the Center, South and South-East Asia, the Middle East in a demonstration of South-South South Solidarity.
“We are committed to advancing our relationships based on mutual respect, confidence and sensitivities,” Modi told Xi at the meeting, according to a video clip published on the official account of the Indian leader.
The bilateral meeting took place five days after Washington imposed a rate punishing of 50% on Indian products due to the purchases of Russian oil from New Delhi. Analysts say that XI and Modi seek to present a united front against Western pressure.
Modi said that an atmosphere of “peace and stability” was created at their disputed border with the Himalayas, the site of an prolonged military impasse after the fatal confrontations of troops in 2020, which frozen most of the cooperation areas between the strategic competitors of nuclear weapons.
He added that an agreement had been concluded between the two nations concerning border management, without giving details.
The two leaders had a revolutionary meeting in Russia last year after having concluded a border patrol agreement, triggering a provisional thaw in links that have accelerated in recent weeks while New Delhi is looking to cover itself against the renewed tariff threats of Washington.
The direct flights between the two nations, which have been suspended since 2020, are “resumed,” added Modi, without providing a delay.
China had agreed to lift export borders on rare earth, fertilizers and tunnel cash machines this month during a key visit to India by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
China opposes Washington’s steep prices on India and “will remain firmly with India,” Chinese ambassador in India Xu Feihong said this month.
For decades, Washington has meticulously cultivated links with New Delhi in the hope that he would act as a regional counterweight in Beijing.
In recent months, China has enabled Indian pilgrims to visit Buddhist sites in Tibet, and the two countries have raised the reciprocal restrictions of tourist visas.
“India and China are involved in what is likely to be a long and difficult process to define a new balance in the relationship,” said Manoj Kewalramani, a Sino-Indian relations expert in the Takshashila institution group in Bengaluru.
