China To Send Top Envoy To India As Ties Warm After US Tariffs

China will send a top official to New Delhi next week, as Beijing steps up efforts to ease long-standing tensions with India amid US President Donald Trump’s global trade overhaul.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will likely travel to New Delhi on Aug. 18 — his first trip to the country in over three years — and is expected to meet India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, according to people familiar with the matter.

A key agenda item will be discussing ways to reduce troop levels along the disputed Himalayan border, the people said, asking not to be identified as the discussions are still private. Such a step would mark significant progress toward restoring trust between the two countries, they added.

The trip marks the latest step in a slow but steady thaw between the Asian neighbors, who are also holding talks to restart border trade and plan to resume direct flights as early as next month. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit China in August — his first trip there in seven years.

India and China began restoring ties late last year, following a deadly 2020 border clash that had severely strained relations. The renewed engagement comes at a time when New Delhi’s ties with Trump are fraying, with Washington imposing a 50% tariff on Indian exports — significantly higher than duties on regional peers.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Thursday that Beijing stands ready to work with New Delhi to “properly handle differences in the face of the big picture.” It makes sense for the two sides to build closer ties as they are “major developing countries and important members of the Global South,” it said in a response to a query from Bloomberg News.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs didn’t respond to an email seeking further information. China’s Foreign Ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request seeking confirmation of Wang’s itinerary

The two nations are considering the resumption of border trade in locally made goods after more than five years, according to New Delhi officials familiar with the matter.

Both sides have proposed restarting trade through designated points on their border, and the matter is currently under discussion, the people said, asking not to be identified as the discussions are still private.

For over three decades, India and China had traded locally produced goods — such as spices, carpets, wooden furniture, cattle fodder, pottery, medicinal plants, electric goods and wool — through three designated points along their 3,488-kilometer 2,167-mile disputed Himalayan border. The trade value is relatively small, estimated at just $3.16 million in 2017–18, according to the most recent government data available.

The trading points were shut during the Covid-19 pandemic, which coincided with a sharp decline in relations between the two nations after the border clashes that killed 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese troops.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also said that Beijing is “willing to step up communication and coordination with India” on the matter. “Border trade between China and India has long played an important role in improving lives of the two countries’ border residents,” it said in its response to the query.

Beijing has also eased curbs on some fertilizer shipments to India and Modi is expected to head to China later this month to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit. He is expected to meet President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the event held in Tianjin from Aug. 31. Russian President Vladimir Putin is also expected to attend the SCO gathering.

Trump is frustrated with India’s continued imports of discounted Russian oil, which he says help fund the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine. Modi has shown no signs of backing down, and his government signed agreements with Moscow this month to deepen economic cooperation. India has argued its purchases of Russian oil have helped stabilize global markets and prevent a supply crunch.