India, China rediscover the language of cooperation

New Delhi, Aug 20: When Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi arrived in New Delhi last week, few expected more than a routine diplomatic engagement. Yet the two-day busy visit, spanning talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, and a call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi has produced a bouquet of agreements that signal something deeper: a slow but positive rebuilding of trust between Asia’s two giants, the elephant and the dragon.

For years, India-China ties have been framed by boundary tensions, mutual suspicion, boycott calls, stoppage of necessary raw material import from China and the memory of deadly clashes in the mountainous Ladakh region.

But the tone this time was strikingly different, pragmatic, constructive, and warm. In an era when Washington is doubling down on tariffs against both New Delhi and Beijing, the symbolism of India and China inching closer carries weight well beyond the bilateral.

The two sides agreed to resume direct flights, suspended since the pandemic and worsened by strained ties. Businesspeople, students, tourists, and pilgrims to Kailash Mansarovar can now look forward to smoother exchanges. Border trade through Lipulekh, Shipki La, and Nathu La is also set to reopen, injecting life into local economies and reminding both countries that connectivity remains the best antidote to distrust.

At the heart of Wang’s visit was the 24th round of Special Representatives’ dialogue on the boundary question, co-chaired with NSA Ajit Doval. The two sides acknowledged that peace has largely held along the frontier since their last engagement, and pledged to keep it that way. To that end, they agreed on several new mechanisms: a joint expert group to explore “early harvests” in boundary delimitation, additional General-Level contacts in the eastern and middle sectors, and closer use of military and diplomatic hotlines. Incremental though they may be, these steps reflect an understanding that mistrust at the border cannot be wished away but can be managed through institutional frameworks. The message was clear: while a final settlement remains elusive, both sides prefer patient negotiation over confrontation. In this context, Modi’s emphasis on a “fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable” solution carries a note of optimism without conceding ground.

On the economic and cultural front, the agreements went further still. There will be facilitated visas, expanded pilgrimages, and a revival of people-to-people exchanges, including a new round of the high-level cultural mechanism in 2026. Both sides also recommitted to commemorating the 75th anniversary of diplomatic ties this year with joint events. Cooperation on trans-border rivers, that continues to be a long a sensitive subject, with China pledging to share hydrological data during emergencies.

India endorsed China’s presidency of this year’s Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin, while Beijing promised support for New Delhi’s hosting of the 2026 BRICS summit. This mutual back-scratching reflects a new maturity: both countries appear willing to compartmentalise differences in order to maximize convergences in global forums, particularly as the world fragments into protectionist blocs. In the broader multilateral arena, the alignment is striking.

In addition, the Prime Minister Modi’s acceptance of President Xi Jinping’s invitation to Tianjin. His participation in the SCO summit will mark his first visit to China since the Kazan meeting in 2024, and comes at a moment when trust-building is most needed. Modi’s emphasis on “mutual respect, mutual interest and mutual sensitivity” is telling: India is not abandoning its strategic caution, but it is signalling that stable ties with China are a cornerstone of regional prosperity.

This thaw comes against the backdrop of America’s increasingly transactional economic policy. Washington has slapped fresh tariffs on both India and China, in effect nudging the two Asian economies to look to each other for markets and supply chains. By re-opening trade routes, easing travel, and recommitting to dialogue, Beijing and New Delhi are seizing the opportunity to show that cooperation, not coercion, is the way forward in Asia.

Still, challenges remain. The boundary dispute is far from settled; political sensitivities will flare again, as they have in the past. But diplomacy is about direction as much as destination. The fact that two neighbours, often adversarial, sometimes rivals, are today talking about flights, festivals, rivers, and pilgrims, rather than barbed wire and troop deployments, is itself a quiet achievement. India and China have rediscovered the language of pragmatism. It is a lexicon rooted less in rivalry than in recognition: that the future of Asia is too important to be held hostage to old disputes, and that in a world of tariffs and fractures, trust between New Delhi and Beijing may be the region’s most valuable commodity.