Singapore’s primary Chinese language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao recently reported that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will reportedly travel to China at the end of August to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit. If this happens, it will be his first visit to China in seven years. Analysts believe that India’s adjustment of its China strategy is intended to offset U.S. pressure amid tensions in US-India relations caused by Trump’s drastic tariff increases. However, a China-India joint confrontation with the U.S. is not expected.
Indian media reported that Modi may take advantage of the SCO summit to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The two sides may discuss further normalizing relations, including easing tensions in the border area, resuming direct flights, reopening border trade points, and strengthening personnel exchanges. In the past few months, the foreign ministers, defense ministers and senior diplomats of China and India have held separate meetings to further improve bilateral relations.
However, the strategic differences between China and India remain difficult to resolve. The Indian Defense Minister refused to sign the joint communiqué at the SCO Defense Ministers’ Meeting held in Qingdao, Shandong in June. At the same time, India-US relations are undergoing major changes too, and the two countries have different positions on many issues such as energy trade and arms purchases with Russia.
Trump’s tough stance on India has prompted India to strengthen cooperation with China, but China-India relations face structural constraints that are difficult to improve in the short term, including the border issue and the Pakistan factor.
Source: Lianhe Zaobao, August 7, 2025
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/news/china/story20250807-7297990