Mint Quick Edit | India-China: A thaw is in the air

5 months ago 9

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US President Donald Trump’s tariff tirade may be giving India’s ties with China a sudden upswing. (REUTERS)

Summary

Signs of a gradual patch-up are welcome half a decade after the Galwan clash of 2020 left ties frayed. This mustn’t be taken as an Indian tilt towards Brics, though.

While a cross-Himalayan thaw seems to have begun setting in since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in October on the sidelines of the Brics summit, US President Donald Trump’s tariff tirade may be giving India’s ties with China a sudden upswing. Both have eased curbs placed on each other.

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Beijing, for instance, has restarted fertilizer supplies and New Delhi has begun issuing visas to Chinese visitors. Now, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi is set to visit India next week for talks with national security advisor Ajit Doval, before the two heads of state possibly meet at the SCO summit in China a few weeks later.

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The signs are unmissable. Progress may be incremental but is crucial for at least trade ties to achieve normalcy after the Galwan clash of 2020. Perhaps India’s investment restrictions will be eased too, duly calibrated to cover security concerns.

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Such a patch-up mustn’t be read as an Indian Brics tilt, let alone support for any coalition against the US. If anything, it would only assert India’s geopolitical neutrality at a time of fraught world affairs. Across the globe, hard-nosed calculations are being made. And business is business.

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