During the meeting in the Chinese coastal city of Tianjin, on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, Xi Jinping stated, “We need to enhance strategic coordination and deepen mutual trust,” as reported by Chinese state television. The Chinese President added that as long as the two nations adhere to the fundamental principle of cooperative partnership rather than competition, and view each other as opportunities for development rather than threats, Sino-Indian relations will continue to prosper.
Indian Prime Minister Modi is attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in China, which begins today, Sunday, and lasts for two days. The summit includes participation from several world leaders, most notably Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iranian President Masoud Jazayeri, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, among others.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is an international organization founded in 2001, consisting of Belarus, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan. It also includes observer states such as Afghanistan and Mongolia, and partner countries like Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia, Nepal, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, and Sri Lanka.
Relations between India and China had severely deteriorated following a series of clashes in the Ladakh border region in May 2020, after which both sides increased their military presence in the area in February 2021. Most of the troops deployed to the region were withdrawn, and negotiations continued. In early September 2022, the two nations implemented a new phase of troop withdrawal along the border, but not all issues were resolved.
On the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Russia in 2024, Modi and Xi Jinping held their first bilateral meeting in nearly five years. They agreed to take steps to improve relations between the two countries, notably resuming direct flights, which had been suspended following the COVID-19 pandemic and border clashes.
