From Kabul, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi flew directly to New Delhi where he ended up meeting the Foreign Minister and the National Security Advisor. The Indian side has categorically stated that the relations with China remain disturbed and there is a need for the complete disengagement for Chinese troops from Eastern Ladakh for the relations between India and China to improve. The Chinese FM’s visit to India that too directly from Kabul might be sudden for India and the world, but the gesture indicates the urgency and eagerness of China to improve ties with India.
However, the visit also needs to be analysed in the backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine war as India has so far preferred to remain neutral concerning the crises that have emerged out of the war. India has condemned the violence in Ukraine by Russia while it has been pitching for dialogue to solve the problems. It is India’s stance that China might want to en-cash to do some good to the problems faced by Russia due to sanctions as India has already decided to keep up with Russian trade and set up a parallel Rupee system.
While the Chinese FM’s visit to India is a first since 2020 after Galwan clashes, the Chinese side had earlier as well signalled that it wants to move ahead, however, India made it a point to ensure that there is a complete disengagement of Chinese troopers from Eastern Ladakh. The matter back then was taken up in several rounds of military talks, however, so far, nothing has come out of it and the Chinese troops remained stationed at several spots in Eastern Ladakh.
What is interesting to note is that the NSA Doval has made the disengagement of Chinese troops as a condition for his visit to Beijing and stated that the same must happen before any further development in the ties. While India is sticking to Galwan, Beijing, it seems, wants to forget it and move ahead, but if that’s done, it will leave room for China to resort to such attempts in future as well and India, at this juncture, cannot afford to appear weak and has to strive to ensure that the issues and the concerns raised are addressed by China.
In all this, while both the countries might be working towards ensuring better ties, the experts believe that Sino-India relations can never improve. They have their reasons for that. However, the urgency shown by the Chinese side this time does speak of Russian interests. The move could well be initiated by Russia as it has started looking towards the other side as the West as well Europe shut their doors.
