(TibetanReview.net, Mar27’25) – As officials from the two countries met in Beijing on Mar 26, India’s External affairs minister S Jaishankar has said in South Korea that the two sides were working to rebuild ties damaged by the Galwan valley clashes of 2020, while noting that some issues remained unresolved.
The meeting in Beijing was held between Mr Gourangalal Das, Joint Secretary (East Asia) from India’s Ministry of External Affairs, and Liu Jinsong, Director General of the Department of Asian Affairs at China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Jaishankar, who spoke on the same day at an event hosted by the Asia Society, South Korea, has stressed that a tense relationship benefits neither country.
In Beijing, the two sides discussed resuming dialogue mechanisms between the two nations “in a step-by-step manner,” focusing on “each other’s priority areas of interest and concern,” reported ddnews.gov.in Mar 27, citing a statement from India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
Jaishankar has explained why normalizing ties between the two sides remains an arduous, step-by-step journey. “It wasn’t just the bloodshed, it was the disregard of written agreements… The departure from the terms of what was agreed to was very sharp and very substantial,” the report quoted him as saying during a session moderated by Kyung-wha Kang, President and CEO of the Asia Society and a former foreign minister of South Korea.
Jaishankar has acknowledged that while the relationship has improved since October last year, certain challenges persisted. “We’re still dealing with some parts of this, it is not that the issue has completely gone away.”
He has noted that efforts were ongoing to address the damage from the 2020 clashes, adding, “We genuinely, sincerely think that this is in our mutual interest.”
Jaishankar has highlighted the importance of managing differences to prevent them from turning into disputes. “We do compete on many issues. But because we compete, it doesn’t mean that there should be a conflict between us. We are very realistic about it.”
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Meanwhile, during the meeting in Beijing, the two sides reviewed the measures undertaken to implement the strategic decisions agreed upon during the Jan 2025 meeting between India’s Foreign Secretary, Vikram Misri, and China’s Vice Foreign Minister, Hua Chunying.
Key areas of discussion were stated to have included enhancing people-to-people exchanges, resuming direct flights, increasing media and think tank collaboration, and commemorating the 75th anniversary of diplomatic ties between India and China. They were also stated to have made progress toward resuming the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra pilgrimage in 2025.
On the outcome of the meeting’s discussions, China’s official chinadaily.com.cn said Mar 27 that the two sides will accelerate efforts to resume direct flights, facilitate personnel exchanges, and enable the reciprocal dispatch of reporters, while effectively addressing disputes and sensitive issues.
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Meanwhile, with US tariffs looming overhead, Indian policy makers are now more open to upgrading bilateral economic relationships with China, noted China’s official globaltimes.cn Mar 26, citing the Indian Express.
The latter was stated to have cited sources familiar with the development as saying that discussions were on between departments “to dilute or neutralize” some of the restrictions on trade and investments that were put in place five years ago after clashes between Chinese and Indian soldiers in Galwan in 2020.
The globaltimes.cn report also cited the Times of India as saying the latest round of diplomatic talks between the two countries came as “India and China look to reboot ties, building upon a spell of relative calm in the border areas.”
The report also cited Chinese Consul General in Kolkata Xu Wei as saying “the spring of China-India relations is arriving”.
The report cited Hu Zhiyong, a professor from Zhejiang International Studies University and also research fellow at the Institute of International Relations at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, as saying India is now truly experiencing Trump administration ‘s “equal treatment” in tariff imposition and that the US has a clear understanding of its national strength, which drives it toward easing relations with China.