Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to visit China for the first time in over seven years in a further sign of a diplomatic thaw with Beijing as tensions with the US escalate at a fierce pace over President Donald Trump’s tariff arm-twisting.

Government sources said Modi was to attend the month-end Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) leaders’ summit in Tianjin. While there is no official confirmation from either capital, preparations are said to be afoot for the trip that would be Modi’s first since 2018 when he visited China twice in a month and a half.

If the visit materialises, it will also be Modi’s first to China since bilateral relations went downhill following the Galwan clash in June 2020 that killed 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese troops.

The government sources spoke about the possible trip on a day Trump ratcheted up the already fraught situation by announcing an additional 25 per cent tariff on India over and above the 25 per cent already put in place. The additional levy owes to the threat the US perceives it faces because of countries buying Russian oil. Trump has also continued to embarrass Modi by repeatedly claiming to have brokered peace between India and Pakistan during Operation Sindoor.

India’s relations with China, on the other hand, have been on the mend although the boundary issue lingers. Less than a month ago, external affairs minister S. Jaishankar called for de-escalation along the India-China border during a visit to Beijing ahead of the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers Meeting in Tianjin.

India and China began taking incremental steps towards normalcy from October last year after a meeting between Modi and President Xi Jinping in Kazan, Russia, on the sidelines of the Brics summit following the completion of the disengagement process at Depsang and Demchok — the last two friction points in eastern Ladakh — that ended the four-year standoff.

The friction was sparked off in May 2020 when Chinese troops intruded into the Galwan Valley as part of a multi-point ingress across the India-claimed line, leading to the clash on June 15 that resulted in the first casualties along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and China in 25 years.

The Galwan Valley had been a settled area on the Indian side of the LAC in eastern Ladakh since the 1962 war. It was not one of the 23 contested areas identified by the two countries along the yet-to-be-demarcated LAC through the joint working group mechanism on the boundary question. In May 2020, China began asserting sovereignty over Galwan after the clash and there is no official word on whether Beijing has given up that claim yet.

In his meetings in Beijing, Jaishankar also made out a case for bilateral visits, seemingly preparing the ground for a possible trip by Modi.

“In recent times, the two of us have had several opportunities to meet at international events and carry out strategic communication. It is our expectation that this will now be regular and take place in each other’s countries,” Jaishankar had said at his meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi. He also met President Xi during that visit.

By this time, China had allowed the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra and the two countries were in discussion over resuming direct flights. Soon after Jaishankar’s visit, the Indian embassy in Beijing and consulates elsewhere in China quietly announced the resumption of tourist visas for Chinese nationals that had been suspended since the onset of Covid.