Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met India’s National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval at Hyderabad House in New Delhi on Tuesday as part of his two-day official visit to India from August 18–19, 2025.

The high-level engagement forms the core of the 24th round of the Special Representatives’ (SR) Talks on the long-standing India-China boundary question.

Wang Yi is visiting India at the invitation of NSA Doval, and his agenda includes extensive consultations with Doval and a bilateral meeting with External Affairs Minister (EAM) Dr. S. Jaishankar.

Later in the day, Wang is also scheduled to call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ahead of the Indian leader’s upcoming visit to China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin later this month.

During the consultations led by NSA Doval and Wang Yi, the emphasis remained on addressing the boundary dispute through diplomatic dialogue. The boundary issue has remained sensitive since tensions erupted in April–May 2020, when the Chinese and Indian militaries engaged in multiple face-offs along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.

Though several rounds of negotiations led to partial disengagement at certain friction points, mutual suspicions persisted for years. However, the breakthrough agreement reached prior to the 2024 BRICS Summit on coordinated patrolling arrangements at the LAC signalled gradual progress in restoring stability.

Both sides are now keen to maintain this momentum and translate military disengagement into broader trust-building on political and economic fronts. India has repeatedly stressed that peace and tranquillity at the border is an essential prerequisite for the overall normalisation of bilateral ties, and this theme is expected to dominate the Delhi talks.

Economic cooperation too emerged as a priority theme, with Beijing signalling readiness to address three of India’s pressing concerns: ensuring stable supplies of rare earths (critical for high-tech manufacturing), fertilizers (vital for agricultural productivity), and tunnel-boring machines (crucial for large-scale infrastructure projects). Sources indicated that this assurance was welcomed in New Delhi, as it aligns with India’s push for industrial and agricultural resilience amid global supply chain volatility.

Wang Yi’s discussions with Dr. Jaishankar on Monday broadened the focus beyond the boundary issues to cover the entire spectrum of relations. The external affairs minister highlighted subjects such as trade and economic cooperation, cultural and religious exchanges including pilgrimages, people-to-people connections, sharing of transboundary river data, local-level border trade, connectivity projects, as well as regional and global developments.

He underlined the importance of ensuring that bilateral differences do not escalate into disputes and reiterated India’s position that while competition between two rising Asian giants is natural, it must not evolve into conflict.

At the strategic level, Wang Yi’s India visit provides an opportunity for both nations to reset the tone of their engagement at a critical juncture. With Prime Minister Modi scheduled to visit China within days for the SCO summit, this round of dialogue serves as a crucial precursor in shaping the atmosphere for his bilateral discussions with President Xi Jinping.

Both governments recognise the need for pragmatic cooperation even against the backdrop of lingering mistrust, as Asia’s stability and global order are significantly influenced by the tenor of India-China ties.

In addition to bilateral matters, both sides are also expected to exchange perspectives on ongoing geopolitical developments, including the evolving security architecture in the Indo-Pacific, global economic uncertainties, the role of BRICS and SCO in forging multipolar frameworks, and pressing international challenges where both nations share converging and diverging stakes.

Wang Yi’s New Delhi engagements thus mark one of the most important steps since the 2020 standoff, with signals that both sides are cautiously moving toward stabilizing relations. While challenges remain in operationalizing disengagement and restoring normalcy along the LAC, the fact that Beijing has shown willingness to address India’s economic concerns and expand avenues of cooperation is an encouraging sign.

For New Delhi, sustaining a dialogue process that keeps the boundary question under careful management while boosting people-to-people and economic exchanges offers a dual-track strategy aimed at preventing adversarial drift. For Beijing, ensuring stability with India at a time of regional flux allows it to focus on core economic priorities and broader global competition with other major powers.

In effect, this visit—anchored in talks between Wang Yi, Ajit Doval, and Dr. Jaishankar—symbolizes the incremental recalibration of India-China ties after years of friction, underscoring both nations’ recognition that while distrust cannot be eliminated overnight, channels of communication and pragmatic cooperation must remain open to prevent competition from sliding into confrontation.

Based On ANI Report