Is India beefing up China, Russia ties amid US friction? – DW – 08/20/2025
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed "steady progress" in relations with China after meeting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday.
"Glad to meet Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Since my meeting with President Xi [Jinping] in Kazan last year, India-China relations have made steady progress guided by respect for each other's interests and sensitivities," Modi said on X.
"I look forward to our next meeting in Tianjin on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit. Stable, predictable, constructive ties between India and China will contribute significantly to regional as well as global peace and prosperity."
Relations between India and China soured after a deadly border clash in 2020, triggering a yearslong standoff between the two nuclear-armed Asian giants.
But Beijing and New Delhi have been trying to rebuild ties over the past year.
In New Delhi, Wang held talks with his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and other senior officials, and the two sides achieved a string of diplomatic breakthroughs.
They agreed to resume direct flights, boost trade and investment, facilitate business and cultural exchanges, as well as issue journalist and tourist visas.
"This outreach is not directed against any country but is aimed at creating a more peaceful and predictable environment along our border," said Meera Shankar, a former Indian ambassador to the US.
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The thaw in relations comes at a time when there's growing friction between India and the US after President Donald Trump slapped steep tariffs on Indian goods, citing New Delhi's imports of Russian energy, among other reasons.
India has decried the tariffs as "unjustified and unreasonable," saying the country is being unfairly singled out for buying Russian oil while the US and the EU continue to purchase goods from Russia.
Modi's government said it would "take all necessary steps to protect its national interests," and has also not signaled any intention to cut back purchases of Russian crude.
Shankar said while the US is an important strategic and economic partner, its actions have introduced an element of uncertainty about the India-US relationship.
"The punitive tariffs that the US has imposed on grounds of Russian oil imports by India, appear to us to be unreasonable. China is importing more oil from Russia than India and is Russia's largest fuel purchaser," Shankar told DW.
"EU imports from Russia in 2024 were over $67 billion, again more than India's imports. Yet, India has been singled out by the US for imposition of 25% additional tariff, taking total tariffs to 50%," she said.
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In a flurry of diplomatic activity, Indian Foreign Minister Jaishankar on Tuesday also embarked on a three-day visit to Moscow.
"The visit aims to further strengthen the longstanding and time-tested India-Russia Special and Privileged Strategic partnership," India's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
And on Wednesday, a Russian embassy official in New Delhi said Moscow will continue to supply oil to India and that Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Modi in New Delhi by the end of the year.
No dates had been finalized for the Putin-Modi meeting yet, Roman Babushkin, the charge d'affaires at the Russian embassy in India, told reporters at a press briefing.
He stressed that India's crude oil imports from Russia will remain at the same level, noting that Moscow has a "very, very special mechanism" to continue oil supplies to the South Asian nation.
Indian foreign policy experts told DW that New Delhi's efforts to strengthen its ties to both Moscow and Beijing are an attempt at balancing diverse partnerships, protecting strategic autonomy and using multilateral forums to pursue its interests amid widening geopolitical fissures.
"Dissuading the Trump administration has been the most challenging and difficult task for India's diplomats. The rising engagement with China need not be seen as a response to this, but India is taking easy steps which were made difficult by its over-reliance or optimism vis-à-vis the US," said Aravind Yelery, a China expert and associate professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.
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Harsh Pant, vice president of Studies and Foreign Policy at Observer Research Foundation, a think-tank, said India engaging with China, or Russia, or the SCO should not be seen primarily through the lens of what is happening between India and the Trump administration.
"There is certainly a 'Trump factor' there, but I do not think it is the dominant one. India has always maintained its position of engaging with these countries independently of its engagement with the US," Pant told DW.
"Insofar as Russia is concerned, India's relationship with Russia has been longstanding. And despite Ukraine, we did not see any attempt by India to dilute that relationship or to dismiss its partnership with Russia, though the West was at one point very annoyed with India," said Pant.
This view is shared by Ajay Bisaria, a former diplomat.
India's recent engagements with Russia and China were planned prior to the tariff dispute with the US, but the optics and tactics will likely be recalibrated as a response to US moves, he said.
Despite the ongoing friction, Bisaria said it's in India's interest to continue pursuing smooth ties and a trade deal with the Trump administration. "However, at a point when both India's leadership and public are questioning the reliability of the US as a friend, the historical 'hesitations' will likely resurface in its dealings, influencing India's diplomatic approach."
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