The ongoing visit of the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, to New Delhi marks a step in India’s attempts to carve out its diplomatic and economic choices at a time when it faces unusual pressure from usual partners. On Monday, Mr Wang met the external affairs minister, S. Jaishankar; he is scheduled to meet the national security adviser, Ajit Doval, and, then, the prime minister, Narendra Modi, today. The visit comes days before Mr Modi is expected to travel to China for a summit of the leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. It will be Mr Modi’s first visit to China in seven years and cap a period of steady improvement in ties after four years of an eyeball-to-eyeball standoff between Indian and Chinese troops along the border. The India-China relationship is still very much a work in progress. Speaking at his meeting with Mr Wang on Monday, Mr Jaishankar referred to the need for both sides to jointly make sure that their contested border remains peaceful and stable. He spoke of the need for a multi-polar Asia — in effect arguing that China would need to accept India as a regional pole of influence. He also referred to their differences when it comes to cross-border terrorism — China is a steadfast partner of Pakistan even though Beijing itself claims that it fears Islamic extremism.
Mr Wang is visiting at a time when it is increasingly clear to both New Delhi and Beijing that they need to manage their relationship in a way that helps them take on shared challenges even as they compete on other issues. For a quarter of a century, the United States of America has largely ignored niggles in its relationship with India to push for a tighter embrace with New Delhi in the belief that the world’s largest democracy is
an important bulwark against Chinese dominance in the Indo-Pacific region. But Donald Trump’s punishing 50% tariffs against Indian imports, including 25% for the purchase of oil from Russia, have dramatically eroded trust in Washington among New Delhi’s strategic planners. That China, which buys even more Russian oil than India, has not been similarly penalised has amplified India’s belief that it must secure its interests on its own. Mr Modi’s visit to China and the visit by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to India later in the year are important moments in that journey to show Mr Trump that he does not hold all the cards.