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Jaishankar rejects linking evolving India-China ties to 'US moves': media reports

Global Times

By Liu Caiyu
Published: Aug 24, 2025 02:06 PM

Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Saturday dismissed speculation that recent diplomatic outreach between India and China was driven by Washington's trade actions, including US President Donald Trump's tariff moves, Indian media reported.

Speaking at The Economic Times World Leaders Forum 2025, Jaishankar said it would be a "mistaken analysis" to view India-China relations as a direct reaction to developments with the United States, according to News18.

'What I want you to understand is it's not black and white. It's not that something has happened with America, so therefore, immediately, something has happened with China... There are different timelines of different lengths on different problems," he was quoted by News 18 as saying.

The minister underlined that ties between New Delhi and Beijing are part of a longer, evolving trajectory and cannot be reduced to one-off responses to specific global events.

However, some US media outlets have viewed recent development of China-India relations via lens of US-India ties. For example, Time Magazine noted recently, "India and China's relationship is thawing as the US' ties with India chill under President Donald Trump."

Certain US politicians also continue to hold onto the mindset of utilizing India to counter China.

Nikki Haley, former US ambassador to the United Nations, claimed on Friday that alienating New Delhi at a time of rising Chinese assertiveness would be a "strategic disaster."

In an opinion piece co-authored with Bill Drexel of the Hudson Institute, Haley claimed that a "partnership between the US and India to counter China should be a no-brainer."

The improvement of bilateral relations between China and India is not influenced by a third party, such as the US, Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times on Sunday. But the US-India relationship, objectively speaking, has further accelerated this process, Qian said.

"Since meeting between leaders of the two countries in Kazan last year, China and India have initiated a process to improve bilateral relations. This improvement is primarily driven by internal factors within the relationship itself," Qian said.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's visit to India concluded on Wednesday, with both sides highlighting a series of consensuses on boundary questions as well as progress in areas including direct flights and trade.

Chinese experts said the meetings marked steady progress and demonstrated both countries' desire to improve relations and expand cooperation.

As two large neighboring countries, strained relations do not align with the fundamental interests of both China and India. This shared interest in overcoming past frictions is the greatest common denominator for the development of both countries, Qian continued.

Facing US pressure such as high tariffs, India is seeking to strengthen economic and trade ties with countries including China, thereby reducing some of the external pressure from Washington, Lan Jianxue, director of the Department of Asia-Pacific Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, told the Global Times.

"India is moving away from its previous US-leaning stance and is increasingly returning to a more balanced approach toward major powers," Qian added.

Recent momentum of improvement in China-India ties should be sustained, with attention to whether they can be maintained consistently over time without interruption or fluctuation, Chinese experts cautioned.