
Indian prime minister to visit China, says security chief
Modi will attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit opening on August 31 in Tianjin, his first visit to China since 2018, Ajit Doval said, in public comments at the start of a meeting with Beijing's Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
"Our prime minister will be visiting for the SCO summit," Doval said, speaking of "new energy" in diplomatic ties.
China "attaches great importance" to Modi's visit to the SCO summit, Wang said, according to an official translator.
"History and reality proves once again that a healthy and stable China-India relationship serves the fundamental and long term interests of both of our countries," Wang added.
Wang is due to meet Modi later on Tuesday.
The world's two most populous nations are intense rivals competing for influence across South Asia, and fought a deadly border clash in 2020.
India is also part of the Quad security alliance with the United States, Australia and Japan, which is seen as a counter to China.
But caught in global trade and geopolitical turbulence triggered by US President Donald Trump's tariff war, the countries have moved to mend ties.
During talks on Monday with Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India's foreign minister, Wang said the two countries should "view each other as partners and opportunities, rather than adversaries or threats".
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Khaleej Times
29 minutes ago
- Khaleej Times
Chinese refiners sweep up Russian oil after Indian demand falls, analysts say
Chinese refineries have purchased 15 cargoes of Russian oil for October and November delivery as Indian demand for Moscow's exports falls away, two analysts and one trader said on Tuesday. India has emerged as the leading buyer of Russian seaborne oil, which has sold at a discount since some Western nations shunned purchases and imposed restrictions on Russian exports over Moscow's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Indian state refiners paused Russian oil purchases last month, however, as those discounts narrowed. And U.S. President Donald Trump is also threatening to punish countries for buying Russian crude. China had secured 15 Russian Urals cargoes for October–November delivery by the end of last week, said Richard Jones, a Singapore-based crude analyst at Energy Aspects. Each Urals cargo ranges in size from 700,000 to 1 million barrels. Kpler senior analyst Xu Muyu wrote in an August 14 report that China has likely purchased about 13 cargoes of Urals and Varandey crude for October delivery, along with at least two Urals cargoes for November. The additional Russian Urals supply could curb Chinese refiners' appetite for Middle Eastern crude, which is $2 to $3 per barrel more expensive, Xu said. This, in turn, could add further pressure to the Dubai market which is already losing momentum as seasonal demand fades while competition from arbitrage supply intensifies, she added. A trade source agreed with Kpler's estimate, adding that the cargoes were booked mostly at the beginning of this month by Chinese state-owned and independent refineries. China, the world's top oil importer and largest Russian oil buyer, primarily buys ESPO crude exported from the Russian Far East port of Kozmino due to its proximity. Its year-to-date imports of Urals crude stood at 50,000 barrels per day, Kpler data showed. Urals and Varandey crude are typically shipped to India, Kpler data showed. Indian state-refiners have backed out Russian crude imports by approximately 600,000 to 700,000 bpd, according to Energy Aspects' Jones. "We do not expect China to absorb all of the additional Russian volumes, as Urals is not a baseload grade for Chinese majors," he said, referring to Chinese state refineries which are not designed to solely process the Russian grade. Chinese refiners will also be wary about the possibility of U.S. secondary sanctions if Trump's push for a Ukraine peace deal breaks down, he added. Trump said on Friday he did not immediately need to consider retaliatory tariffs on countries such as China for buying Russian oil but might have to "in two or three weeks".


Khaleej Times
an hour ago
- Khaleej Times
India seeks to boost local brands as higher US tariffs loom
Question: With the US administration levying across the board 25 per cent tariff, and additional penalty of 25 per cent, on all Indian origin goods, will the government be inclined to give subsidies to exporters? ANSWER: Instead of providing subsidies, the government is pushing Indian exporters to build and promote brands as branded products command a value which affluent American consumers may be willing to pay for. The brand promotion exercise would be undertaken jointly by export promotion councils and the India Brand Equity Foundation. Incentives may be given under an employment-linked scheme for certain industries such as those dealing in leather and marine products. This would benefit both the domestic and export sectors as a result of higher production and lower costs, thereby mitigating the effect of the increased tariff rate. While some countries competing with India enjoy a lower rate of tariff, they may not be able to create adequate capacities immediately to meet the shortfall and therefore Indian goods will continue to meet the demand in the United States. Lower cost of credit on account of an interest equalisation scheme for pre- and post-shipment export credit will also blunt the tariff hike. Around 25 per cent of goods exported will be outside the ambit of tariffs. Pharmaceutical goods, petroleum products and electronics are not covered by the higher tariff. Likewise, semiconductors, smart phones and electronic products are not affected. Some Indian manufacturers are likely to shift their production lines to the UAE from where goods would be exported to the United States which would attract the baseline tariff rate of 10 per cent. Question: Are adequate steps being taken in India to develop the cloud market for storing data applications and infrastructure? ANSWER: Indian companies in the private sector are gaining strength to challenge bigger global rivals in the fast growing cloud market. They are able to take on foreign hyperscalers by positioning themselves as affordable and secure alternatives with cost savings of 30 per cent to 50 per cent compared to the large international cloud providers. Hyperscalers are large cloud providers having massive computing resources with related infrastructure and offer free cloud credits and start up support. Indian companies are rapidly building technical sophistication, security credentials and operational scale to effectively compete with established global platforms. The Indian government is encouraging companies to provide cloud solutions for ensuring compliance and security of core applications and data, especially to enterprises in the banking, financial services and insurance space. Global hyperscalers have grown their footprint in India by entering into agreements with mobile phone operators for development of affordable cloud-based solutions. These are widely used by startups and small and medium enterprises which have been slow in moving to sovereign cloud on account of high costs and risks associated with migrating applications which are time consuming and cause business disruptions. Currently, the cloud market revenue in India stands at $8.3 billion. Question: Gold prices have shot up in India in the last one year, as well as internationally. Will this affect purchase of gold ornaments which will be in demand in the festive and wedding seasons? ANSWER: The demand for gold is certainly muted due to rising prices, as evident from the figures for the first quarter April-June of this financial year. According to estimates of the World Gold Council, the rising price of gold has impacted jewellery consumption with demand falling by 17 per cent year-on-year to around 89 tonnes in this quarter. However, according to their estimate, the high price of gold has boosted the demand on the investment front, an increase of 7 per cent year-on-year. Thus, there seems to be a strategic commitment among investors to purchase gold as a long term store of value. The projected demand for the current year is estimated at 600 to 700 tonnes. Gold prices have been highly volatile due to multiple factors, including geo- political uncertainties, and the price of the metal in India crossed100,000 for 10 grams on April 22, 2025, though subsequently it has come down. Gold recycling has remained at a modest figure of 1 per cent, indicating that consumers and investors are holding on to their assets with confidence in its true intrinsic value. HP Ranina is a practising lawyer, specialising in corporate and fiscal laws of India.


Zawya
2 hours ago
- Zawya
Japan startup to issue first yen-pegged stablecoin
TOKYO - Japanese startup JPYC said it will issue the first stablecoin pegged to the yen later in the year after receiving a licence this week. The stablecoin, which will be called "JPYC", will be fully convertible to the yen and backed by domestic savings and Japanese government bonds (JGBs), the company's CEO Noritaka Okabe told a news conference. "Initially, we expect demand to come from institutional investors, hedge funds and family offices in Japan," he said. "Eventually, we aim to have JPYC used overseas as digital yen and delivered to people across the world." JPYC, which plans to issue the stablecoin around autumn, said it would not charge transaction fees. Instead, the more stablecoins it issues, the more JGBs it will hold, and it would earn money from the interest on those holdings. Blockchain-based stablecoins - which are typically pegged to a fiat currency and offer faster and cheaper transactions - are gaining much momentum worldwide. In the U.S., President Donald Trump in July signed into law federal rules and guidelines for stablecoins to facilitate their usage in everyday payments and settlements. Financial companies from Bank of America to Fiserv are preparing to launch their own dollar-backed crypto tokens, although experts warn the path forward may not be simple. In contrast, in mainland China, where crypto trading is banned, Chinese regulators have asked big local brokers to halt publication of research endorsing stablecoins in a bid to curb a surge in interest among domestic investors. (Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)