Recalibration of India-China ties – Hindustan Times

On April 1, 1950, India became the first non-socialist bloc country to recognise the new Communist Party-led People’s Republic of China. Two civilisational, post-colonial independent powers entered into a structured relationship for the first time. The handshake across the Himalayas ushered in a decade of bonhomie before the 1962 war along the disputed and unmarked mountainous border set back ties for years.

On Tuesday, President Droupadi Murmu and Chinese President Xi Jinping exchanged greetings to mark 75 years of diplomatic ties. Murmu and Xi’s exchange, while couched in humdrum phrases like peaceful coexistence, mutual trust and benefit, common development and elephant-dragon tango, is significant. It is the first time that the presidents of the two countries exchanged greetings to mark the date since April 2020 when former Indian President Ramnath Kovind similarly exchanged pleasantries with Xi. Chinese aggression along the Line of Actual Control soon after saw a chill set into the relationship.

The call between Xi and Murmu — he told India’s first citizen that both countries are “important members of the Global South” and “at a critical stage of their respective modernisation efforts” — nudges forward the post-Galwan watchful thaw in ties, initiated after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Xi in Kazan, Russia, during the Brics summit last October, the first formal interaction between the two leaders since late 2019.

April 1 is a bilateral diplomatic date set in history — and it isn’t lost on anyone that the exchange between the two leaders comes a day ahead of US President Donald Trump’s expected announcement of wide-ranging trade tariffs against countries including India and China.

If there is indeed a calibrated message for Washington from New Delhi and Beijing in the Murmu-Xi exchange, it was bolstered by what the Chinese envoy to India Xu Feihong told Chinese State media on Monday. China is willing to work with India to strengthen practical cooperation in trade and import Indian products, Xu said, adding that Beijing welcomes Indian enterprises. Trade between the two countries reached over $138 billion and China issued over 280,000 visas to Indian citizens in 2024.

Given the wide-ranging divergences — including a crippling trade imbalance — and deep mistrust between New Delhi and Beijing, it would be naïve to assume that the two countries will indeed tango in the face of US tariffs. But it could give the two neighbours a reason to engage more, iron out differences and take a pragmatic and mature approach to the overall relationship. The 75th year could be a good year to begin afresh.