Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Chinese city Tianjin for the SCO summit, India and China have signalled a reset in their economic ties by exploring modalities to resume border trade, a confidence-building step that can be a precursor to recalibrating economic ties between Asia’s two top economies.
Reconfiguring economic ties and balancing trade that remains heavily skewed in favour of China will be among key issues that will dominate bilateral talks between PM Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Tianjin.
India’s external affairs ministry has dropped hints about an imminent resumption of border trade. “Border trade has been part of India-China conversation in several of our meetings,” said Randhir Jaiswal, the spokesperson of India’s external affairs ministry, in New Delhi on August 14. “We have remained engaged with the Chinese side to facilitate the resumption of border trade through all the designated trade points, namely Lipulekh Pass in Uttarakhand, Shipki La Pass in Himachal Pradesh, and Nathula Pass in Sikkim,” he said.
The plan to resume border trade signal a larger design to recalibrate India-China relationship that has shown signs of revival in the last few months after the meeting between the leaders of India and China in Kazan, Russia, in October 2024. The resumption of Kailash Mansarovar yatra, along with the resumption of tourist visas, underlines growing political will to turn around the crucial relationship that has remained mired in portrayals of each other as competitors and rivals.
The resumption of direct flights between major cities of India and China is likely to be announced during PM Modi’s visit to China, paving the way for bolstering people-to-people contacts between the two countries.
Although no official announcement about PM Modi’s visit to China has been made, the much-speculated trip is near certain, with both sides preparing a substantive agenda for an incremental transformation of bilateral ties. PM Modi will visit China for the SCO summit in Tianjin on August 31-September 1, 2025.
