The Chinese foreign ministry on Thursday said China and India are both major developing countries and important members of the Global South, and “cooperative pas de deux of the dragon and the elephant as partners helping each other succeed is the right choice for both sides”, reported Global Times.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian was responding to a question about how Beijing sees the bilateral relations with New Delhi evolving and how both countries can work together on the global stage.
US President Donald Trump’s threat of a 50 per cent tariff on Indian goods is pushing Prime Minister Narendra Modi closer to BRICS nations, especially China. This marks a significant shift in bilateral ties between India and China, which saw their lowest point in 2020 following the Galwan Valley clash.
“China stands ready to work with India to act on the important common understandings reached between leaders of our two countries, consistently increase political mutual trust, expand exchanges and cooperation together, properly handle differences while bearing in mind the bigger picture, and strengthen coordination and cooperation on such multilateral platforms as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, with a view to promoting the sound and steady development of China-India relations,” Global Times quoted Lin as saying.
Amid the India-US tariff tensions, PM Narendra Modi is expected to announce the resumption of direct flights with China as soon as next month, people familiar with the negotiations, who asked for anonymity to discuss private matters, told news agency Bloomberg.
The deal could be formally announced when Modi is expected to head to China for the first time in seven years and meet President Xi Jinping at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation held in Tianjin from August 31, the report added.
Washington DC has long courted New Delhi as a counterbalance to Beijing in geopolitics but with Donald Trump’s trade wars, China and India are finding common ground.
Xu Feihong, China’s ambassador to India, has offered Modi moral support over the tariffs.
“Give the bully an inch, he will take a mile,” Xu wrote last week on X over a quote from Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi denouncing the use of tariffs “as a weapon to suppress other countries.”
Trump’s 50% tariff on India
Modi’s economic calculus was fundamentally altered this month when Trump doubled tariffs on Indian goods to 50 per cent as a penalty for its purchases of Russian oil.
Donald Trump’s remarks that India’s economy was “dead” and its tariff barriers “obnoxious” further strained relations.
