Relations between the two Asian giants have been thawing since an agreement last October on patrolling their Himalayan border, easing a five-year standoff that had hurt trade, investment and air travel.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping at the end of the month when he travels to China – his first visit in seven years – to attend the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a regional security bloc.
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India and China share a 3,800 km (2,400 miles) border that is poorly demarcated and has been disputed since the 1950s. The two countries fought a brief but brutal border war in 1962, and decades of talks have made limited progress.
Relations between the two countries boosted in recent weeks amid new tensions in India-US ties after decades of progress, analysts said, as Trump imposed a 50% tariff on Indian exports to the United States – one of the highest levels among Washington’s strategic partners.
The United States and China, meanwhile, previous week extended a tariff truce for another 90 days, staving off triple-digit duties on each other’s goods.
China and India have already agreed to resume direct flights suspended since 2020 and are discussing easing trade barriers, including reopening border trade at three Himalayan crossings.