Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is scheduled to visit India next week as relations between Beijing and New Delhi show signs of significant improvement. The warming ties come amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent tariff policy, which appears to be accelerating rapprochement between the two Asian powers.
During his visit, Wang is expected to meet with Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval. Both officials serve as their respective governments’ special representatives for negotiations over the disputed border between India and China. The decades-long border issue has been a major source of tension, dating back to the brief but bitter war fought in 1962. Relations deteriorated sharply following a deadly clash in the Himalayas in 2020, in which both sides reported casualties.
Wang’s trip coincides with emerging reports that direct cross-border trade is set to resume for the first time since the 2020 clashes. Additionally, the two countries have announced plans to restart direct flights, which were suspended the same year.
The rapid thaw appears to be driven, in part, by Washington’s decision to impose steep 50% tariffs on Indian imports. President Trump has said that half of the tariff rate serves as a penalty for India’s continued purchase of Russian oil as Trump threatened to place secondary sanctions on Russia's trading parnters. The move has placed India in a position similar to Russia and China, both of which have been under significant pressure by the U.S. for the past few years.
Long regarded as the least enthusiastic founding member of the BRICS bloc, India now appears more inclined to strengthen ties with Beijing. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to travel to China at the end of the month for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit—his first visit to Beijing in seven years. Modi is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping during the event, a meeting that could mark a significant step toward restoring full bilateral relations.