Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to hold two crucial bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Tianjin on Sunday.

This prospective double engagement, sources suggest, will be part of an expanded diplomatic outreach aimed at stabilising and revitalising bilateral relations at a time when both India and China are confronted with challenges stemming from global economic turbulence, particularly the tariff war triggered by US President Donald Trump.

PM Modi will arrive in Tianjin on Saturday evening from Japan, and his first formal meeting with President Xi is likely to take place around Sunday noon. The possibility of a second meeting, before the official SCO Summit banquet, underscores the significance attached by both leaders to repairing strained ties.

Modi’s visit is of added importance as it will mark his first trip to China in seven years, and expectations are high that his interactions with Xi could provide the much-needed push to reset relations.

On Monday, Prime Minister Modi is scheduled to actively participate in the SCO Summit deliberations, where key issues of regional and global concern will be discussed. On the sidelines, he is also expected to hold a bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin before returning to India.

The SCO Summit itself is being viewed as particularly consequential for India-China relations given the downturn in India-US ties following President Trump’s recent decision to impose a 50 percent tariff on Indian exports.

Against this backdrop, New Delhi and Beijing find themselves under pressure to reassess their economic and strategic strategies in light of growing American protectionist policies.

Both sides are aware that stabilising their relationship is not only important bilaterally but also geopolitically, especially since the Trump administration has recently courted Pakistan, with the US President hosting an unprecedented luncheon in honour of Pakistan’s Army Chief Asim Munir after "Operation Sindoor," arousing India’s serious concerns about Washington’s tilt toward Islamabad.

Modi’s meeting with President Xi is especially significant considering the history of recent military tensions between India and China along the Eastern Ladakh border. A turning point in this fraught phase came during the BRICS Summit in Kazan last year, where both leaders broke a four-year deadlock and signalled their intention to repair ties.

Since then, the two countries have intensified their diplomatic and security-level engagements, with India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi holding two rounds of boundary talks in the past nine months.

Their discussions reportedly injected fresh momentum into the stalled dialogue, with rare mention of the possibility of an “early harvest” on the boundary issue — a phrase seldom heard in the historically troubled context of Sino-Indian relations. This provides a broader context to the Modi-Xi meetings, which are widely expected to yield a roadmap for deepened cooperation and enhanced stability in ties.

China appears to be playing a pivotal role in ensuring the Tianjin SCO summit is the largest and most impactful edition of the forum to date, with 20 foreign leaders having been invited, beyond the core 10-member SCO bloc.

From India’s perspective, the summit comes at a delicate moment when balancing ties with both the US and China is essential in light of the shifting global order. Modi’s potential engagement with Putin will also be closely monitored, especially because Washington has explicitly criticised India for continuing energy imports from Moscow.

As sanctions and strategic alignments reshape global politics, India’s diplomatic manoeuvring at Tianjin will likely be interpreted as both an assertion of its independent foreign policy and a recalibration of its priorities in Eurasia.

Welcoming Modi’s attendance at the SCO summit, Chinese scholars and analysts have underlined the broader importance of India-China cooperation within regional and global settings. Zhou Rong, Professor of Strategic Studies at Renmin University, noted that both Modi and Xi share a personal rapport built over the past decade through numerous bilateral and multilateral interactions.

He predicted that the Tianjin meetings would be amicable and pragmatic, with both sides motivated to build a “good neighbourly relation” and revive their shared civilizational affinity.

Similarly, Rong Ying, Senior Research Fellow at the China Institute of International Studies, emphasised India’s role as indispensable for the SCO’s success. He noted that Beijing expects New Delhi to play a constructive role, collaborate within the bloc, and help strengthen the forum’s mandate of promoting peace, security, and regional development.

The outcome of the Modi-Xi engagements is being watched across the world, not only because of the lingering trust deficit between the two countries but also due to the broader context of shifting global alignments.

Strategic experts argue that as both India and China feel the brunt of Trump’s trade tariffs and rising global uncertainty, they may find common ground in advancing cooperation through regional forums like the SCO.

Moreover, the presence of Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at the summit introduces an added dimension, given India’s acute security concerns regarding cross-border terrorism. Thus, the Modi-Xi interactions are expected to set the tone not just for bilateral relations but also for India’s role within the SCO and potentially within the broader regional order.

In conclusion, the Tianjin SCO Summit presents a rare and significant opportunity for India and China to reaffirm their shared interests in the face of complex geopolitical challenges.

Modi’s meetings with Xi Jinping and later with President Putin will be crucial markers of India’s diplomatic balancing act as it navigates its strained ties with Washington. While expectations are cautious, there is widespread hope that the dialogue between the two Asian giants will pave the way for renewed stability, pragmatic cooperation, and a more predictable course in bilateral relations.

Based On A PTI Report