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Al Jazeera
3 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
India's Modi meets China's top diplomat Wang as Asian powers rebuild ties
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has met China's top diplomat Wang Yi and hailed the 'steady progress' made in improving the bilateral relationship after a years-long standoff between the nuclear-armed Asian powers and as the two nations navigate a shifting global economy upended by United States President Donald Trump's tariffs. Modi also noted 'respect for each other's interests and sensitiveness' in a statement on social media after meeting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang in New Delhi on Tuesday. China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the countries have entered a 'steady development track' and the countries should 'trust and support' each other. Glad to meet Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Since my meeting with President Xi in Kazan last year, India-China relations have made steady progress guided by respect for each other's interests and sensitivities. I look forward to our next meeting in Tianjin on the sidelines of the SCO… — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 19, 2025 Wang arrived in India on Monday and has met with Foreign Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar as well as National Security Adviser Ajit Doval about the countries' disputed border in the Himalayan mountains. India's Ministry of External Affairs said Wang's meeting with Doval discussed 'deescalation, delimitation and boundary affairs'. Relations plummeted in 2020 after security forces clashed along the border. The violence, the worst in decades, left 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese soldiers dead, freezing high-level political engagements. 'The setbacks we experienced in the past few years were not in the interest of the people of our two countries. We are heartened to see the stability that is now restored in the borders,' Wang said Monday. Modi emphasised the importance of maintaining peace and tranquillity on the border and reiterated India's commitment to a 'fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable resolution of the boundary question,' his office said in a statement. 'Political compromise' The rebuilding of India-China ties coincides with friction between New Delhi and Washington after United States President Donald Trump imposed steep tariffs on India for continuing to buy Russian oil, which the US says is fuelling Moscow's war machine. India is a longtime US ally seen as a counterbalance against China's influence in Asia and is part of the Quad security alliance with the US, along with Australia and Japan. The chill in relations after the deadly clash in 2020 between troops in the Ladakh region affected trade, diplomacy and air travel, as both sides deployed tens of thousands of security forces in border areas. Some progress has been made since then. Last year, India and China agreed to a pact on border patrols and withdrew additional forces along some border areas. Both countries continue to fortify their border by building roads and rail networks. In recent months, the countries have increased official visits and discussed easing some trade restrictions, movement of citizens and visas for businesspeople. In June, Beijing allowed pilgrims from India to visit holy sites in Tibet. Both sides are working to restore direct flights. Last week, the spokesman for India's Foreign Ministry, Randhir Jaiswal, said India and China were in discussions to restart trade through three points along their 3,488km (2,167-mile) border. 'Settling the boundary issue between the two countries requires political compromise at the highest political level,' said Manoj Joshi, a fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, a New Delhi-based think tank.
Al Jazeera
a day ago
- Al Jazeera
The children abandoned by South Korea's adoption policy
The world's largest diaspora of international adoptees comes from South Korea. Among them are mixed-race children who were forcibly sent for adoption due to the country's racist laws. One Black adoptee's search for a home reflects hard truths about the past of hundreds of thousands of international adoptees. This is a story from the archives. This originally aired on September 25, 2024. None of the dates, titles or other references from that time have been changed.
Al Jazeera
a day ago
- Al Jazeera
Trump aide slams India's ‘opportunistic' purchases of Russian oil
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro says India's purchases of Russian crude oil are funding Moscow's war in Ukraine and have to stop, as Washington ramps up pressure on New Delhi to cut off its energy imports from Russia. 'India acts as a global clearinghouse for Russian oil, converting embargoed crude into high-value exports while giving Moscow the dollars it needs,' Navarro wrote in an opinion piece published in the Financial Times on Monday. He added that India's dependence on Russian crude is 'opportunistic and deeply corrosive of the world's efforts to isolate Putin's war economy'. India is the second-largest buyer of Russian oil, after China, and more than 30 percent of its fuel is sourced from Moscow, providing revenue to the Kremlin amid Western sanctions. In the beginning of this month, United States President Donald Trump imposed 50 percent tariffs on Indian goods over the issue, straining US-India ties. In a speech on the occasion of India's Independence Day on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi struck a defiant note, pledging to protect his country's farmers in the face of high tariffs slapped by the Trump administration. 'Modi will stand like a wall against any policy that threatens their interests. India will never compromise when it comes to protecting the interests of our farmers,' he said. India-Russia ties India counts Russia among its closest defence partners, with the bulk of its weapons, including the S-400 missile defence system, sourced from Moscow. India has continued to maintain good ties with Russia, with Modi meeting Putin in Moscow amid the Ukraine war. But New Delhi has been cultivating ties with Washington in the past decades, raising their relations to a strategic level. The two countries have annual bilateral trade of $128bn, but Trump has been pushing to lower the $45bn deficit in India's favour. The US also saw India as a bulwark against rising China, but the recent actions by the Trump administration seem to have pushed India to mend ties with its rival, China. Indian Prime Minister Modi is set to travel to China at the end of the month, while Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is arriving in India on Monday on a two-day trip, for talks on the disputed border between the two countries. In the opinion piece on Monday, the White House adviser pointed out that India is 'cozying up' to Russia and China. 'If India wants to be treated as a strategic partner of the US, it needs to start acting like one,' Navarro wrote. The adviser also said it was risky to transfer cutting-edge US military capabilities to India as New Delhi's ties to China and Russia deepen. Navarro is the second senior Trump administration official to accuse India of financing Russia's war in Ukraine. Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff at the White House, in the first week of August said that New Delhi's purchase of Russia crude was 'not acceptable'. 'What he (Trump) said very clearly is that it is not acceptable for India to continue financing this war by purchasing the oil from Russia,' Miller, one of Trump's most influential aides, said in an interview with Fox News. 'Unfairly singled out' India's Foreign Ministry has said the country is being 'unfairly' singled out for buying Russian oil while the US and European Union continue to buy goods from Russia. The EU and US trade much more with Russia than India does – New Delhi's contention for being singled out – although this trade has dipped significantly since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. According to the EU, its total trade with Russia was worth 67.5 billion euros ($77.9bn) in 2024, a fall from 257.5 billion euros ($297.4bn) in 2021. The bloc also continues to buy Russian gas – $105.6bn for gas imports since the war began – an amount equivalent to 75 percent of Russia's 2024 military budget, according to the Finnish think tank the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. Total Russia-US trade in 2024, meanwhile, stood at $5.2bn, according to the US Trade Representative's office – though significantly down from 2021, when it stood at $36bn. India and the US have also been haggling for months to agree on a free trade agreement, with Trump accusing New Delhi of denying access to US goods by imposing high tariffs. Meanwhile, a planned visit by US trade negotiators to New Delhi from August 25 to 29 has been called off, a source told the Reuters news agency, delaying talks on a proposed trade agreement meant to be a relief from additional US tariffs on Indian goods.
