BEIJING — India has called on China to avoid restrictive trade measures and continue de-escalating tensions along their shared border in order to fully normalize bilateral relations, Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said Monday during a high-level meeting in Beijing.
In his first visit to China since 2020, Jaishankar met with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and emphasized that sustained progress in resolving border friction is key to restoring trust and fostering cooperation.
“Good progress has been made over the past nine months,” Jaishankar said, crediting the improvement in ties to troop withdrawals and reduced friction along the disputed frontier.
The two nations, whose relations soured following a deadly military clash in 2020 in the Galwan Valley, remain locked in a delicate standoff along parts of their 3,800-kilometre border — a boundary that has been disputed since the 1950s. Although diplomatic and military talks have continued, progress toward a permanent resolution has been slow.
Last month, Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also urged China to pursue a “permanent solution” to the border dispute, signaling renewed diplomatic momentum from New Delhi.
Jaishankar reiterated that “de-escalation and disengagement” remain essential to resolving the issue, but added that “avoiding restrictive trade measures” was equally critical to building a stable, mutually beneficial relationship.
The comment comes amid growing concerns in India over recent Chinese export controls on critical materials like rare earth magnets and high-tech manufacturing equipment — resources crucial to electronics, renewable energy, and defense sectors.
Despite holding the world’s fifth-largest reserves of rare earths, India has yet to fully develop its domestic production, making it vulnerable to global supply shifts.
China has not yet released an official readout of the Jaishankar-Wang talks.
Earlier in the day, Jaishankar also met with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) foreign ministers’ summit. According to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency, Han called on both countries to “steadily advance practical cooperation” and “respect each other’s core concerns.”
As Asia’s two largest economies seek to rebuild trust after years of tension, both sides appear to be cautiously testing the waters for a broader diplomatic thaw — but the path forward remains complex, with trade, security, and geopolitics all in play.