New Delhi (TDI): China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has described relations with India as moving in a “positive direction,” emphasizing cooperation over rivalry during his meeting with Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in New Delhi.
The two Asian giants, which share both a long border and a history of competition across South Asia, clashed violently in 2020. Since then, relations have been strained, particularly as India deepened its role in the Quad grouping with the United States, Japan, and Australia, an alliance often viewed as a counterbalance to Beijing.
But in recent months, the two sides have signaled efforts to repair ties amid wider global trade and geopolitical shifts.
Wang highlighted the “resumption of dialogue at multiple levels” and efforts to maintain calm along the frontier as signs of a return to cooperation.
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He urged both countries to see each other “as partners and opportunities, rather than adversaries or threats.”
Wang is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his three-day visit, with Indian media reporting that Modi could travel to China later this month, his first visit since 2018.
The leaders had already met last October in Russia, their first encounter in five years.
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Officials on both sides have recently floated the idea of restarting border trade, suspended since 2020.
Talks are also underway on reviving direct flights and issuing tourist visas, steps that would carry strong symbolic weight for the relationship.
Farkhund Yousafzai is an Associate Editor at The Diplomatic Insight.
