China and India should be partners, not adversaries, says foreign minister Wang Yi

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - DELHI — India and China should view each other as "partners" rather than "adversaries or threats", Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Monday, as he arrived for a two-day visit to Delhi.

Yi met with Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar - only the second such meeting between the two sides since 2020 - when deadly clashes in the Galwan valley in Ladakh, a disputed Himalayan border region, led to a complete breakdown of ties between the countries.

Relations are now on a "positive trend" towards cooperation, Yi said ahead of a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday.

Jaishankar said that India and China were seeking to "move ahead from a difficult period in our ties".

The two counterparts held discussions on a range of bilateral issues from trade to pilgrimages and river data sharing.

Yi also met India's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Tuesday for on-going negotiations on resolving the boundary dispute between the two countries.

"We are happy to share that stability has now been restored at the borders," Yi said during the delegation-level meeting with Doval.

"The setbacks that we faced in the last few years were not in our interest," he said.

Yi's visit is being seen as the latest sign of a thaw in ties between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

India and China had agreed on patrolling arrangements to de-escalate tensions along the disputed Himalayan border in October last year.

Since then, the two sides have taken a range of steps to normalise relations, including China allowing Indian pilgrims to visit key places in the Tibet autonomous region this year. India has also restarted visa services to Chinese tourists and agreed to resume talks to open border trade through designated passes.

There are also reports that direct flights between the two countries will resume this year.

Yi's meetings are expected to lay the groundwork for Modi's first visit to China in seven years later this month, to attend the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a regional security bloc.

Reports suggest Modi might also hold bilateral talks with China's President Xi Jinping, but neither side has confirmed this.

The rapprochement between the countries comes in the backdrop of India's worsening bilateral relationship with the US.

Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump imposed an additional 25% penalty on Indian imports for buying oil and weapons from Russia, taking total tariffs to 50% - the highest in Asia.

On Monday, White House Trade Advisor Peter Navarro wrote an opinion piece in The Financial Times in which he accused India of "cozying up to both Russia and China".

"India acts as a global clearinghouse for Russian oil, converting embargoed crude into high-value exports while giving Moscow the dollars it needs," Navarro wrote.

"If India wants to be treated as a strategic partner of the U.S., it needs to start acting like one," he said.

In his remarks after meeting with Yi on Monday, Jaishankar said talks would include global developments.

"We seek a fair, balanced and multi-polar world order, including a multipolar Asia," Jaishankar said.

"Reformed multilateralism is also the call of the day. In the current environment, there is clearly the imperative of maintaining and enhancing stability in the global economy as well," he added. — BBC