HIMALAYAN CHALLENGE

Bilateral diplomacy is a never-ending tightrope walk for India and China

- SATARUPA BHATTACHARJYA

Sino-Indian diplomacy has seen good and bad days over the past seven decades. The bilateral relationship had experienced an intense freeze for 15 years, following the 1962 war. It plunged to a new low after Indian and Chinese soldiers were killed in a clash in the Galwan river valley in June 2020. More skirmishes, though nonfatal, have taken place since then, amid a troops build-up, in their thousands, and partial pullback. Despite a series of military meetings, the standoff in certain parts of the border continues, with major implications for foreign policy.

Diplomacy is struggling. The lack of direct flights, suspended four years ago, is an indication. Indian observers of Sino-Indian relations said Beijing and New Delhi barely talked these days. Chinese analysts said back channels of communication should be opened.

In his message to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 11 to congratulate him on his election victory, Chinese Premier Li Qiang said, “China is willing to work with India to push forward bilateral relations in the right direction.” India wants to talk about “border issues” with China, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar told the media after the new government was formed.

China views the decades-long dispute as a “leftover problem” of British colonialism and wants to go about business as usual in other areas such as trade, where it exports a lot more than it imports (India’s trade deficit was nearly $85 billion in 2023-24). India wants a return to status quo—as things were before mid-2020—along the Line of Actual Control. China’s new ambassador to India, Xu Feihong, arrived in April. The 18-month delay in his appointment was the longest for the post since relations were normalised after the war.