Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will be visiting India on Monday to discuss the border problem with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval through the Special Representatives system.
This visit comes just a few days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit Tianjin, China, for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's (SCO) annual meeting.
According to PTI on Wednesday, the main reason the Chinese foreign minister is in India is to hold the next round of Special Representatives (SR) talks on the boundary issue. The assigned SRs for the boundary discussion are Wang and Doval.
Doval travelled to China in December last year and held the SR talks with Wang, weeks after Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping decided to revive various dialogue mechanisms between the two sides at a meeting in the Russian city of Kazan.
US President Donald Trump has imposed steep tariffs on Beijing and Delhi, which will coincide with Wang's trip to India. Trump has imposed a 50 per cent tax on India, which includes a 25 per cent "penalty" for buying Russian energy and arms.
The most recent Wang-Doval meeting took place in June during a previous meeting of the regional security bloc known as the SCO.
NDTV reported that the relationship between China and India has somewhat thawed following the tariff onslaught of Trump. Earlier this year, the US and China engaged in a reciprocal import duty exchange, with Beijing announcing a 125 per cent tariff on US goods and Washington a 145 per cent charge on Chinese imports.
Wang urged China and India to cooperate and "take the lead in opposing hegemonism and power politics" in March, when US duties on China were still only 20 per cent.
"Making the dragon and elephant dance is the only right choice... supporting, instead of wearing each other down, and strengthening cooperation, instead of staying on guard, is in our fundamental interests," he stated following a meeting of the National People's Congress.
Additionally, Wang cited "positive strides" in the India-China relationship during the last year, including the military's withdrawal from Depsang and Demchok in Ladakh following the 2020 confrontations.
India the approach a few days later, resuming pilgrimages to locations under Chinese rule, direct flights, and journalist exchanges are among the steps the administration is taking to chart "a more predictable and positive course" for the relationship, according to Foreign Minister S Jaishankar.
China, on the other hand, has praised Modi's upcoming visit and highlighted what appears to be a step toward better ties with India for the time being. The SCO summit, which will take place in Tianjin on August 31 and September 1, will be the biggest in history, according to Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Guo Jiakun.
On the fringes, Modi is expected to meet bilaterally with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom India is negotiating an end to the conflict in Ukraine.
