PM Modi–Xi Talk Peace Amid Trump’s Tariff Heat

• First bilateral in China since 2018
• Border calm after disengagement talks
• Kailash Mansarovar Yatra resumes
• Direct flights between India and China restart
• Modi: Ties must rest on trust, respect, sensitivity

GG News Bureau
Tianjin, 31st Aug: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in Tianjin on Saturday on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit, marking their first bilateral engagement in China in seven years. The meeting comes at a crucial moment, as both India and China face economic pressure from US President Donald Trump’s steep tariff measures.

PM Modi thanked President Xi for his invitation and praised China’s chairmanship of the SCO, setting a positive tone for the talks. The two leaders discussed measures to restore calm and stability along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), with Modi noting that Indian and Chinese special representatives had reached an understanding on border management. He added that troop disengagement at key flashpoints had already brought relative stability.

Highlighting symbolic confidence-building steps, Modi announced the resumption of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra after a five-year suspension and the restart of direct flights between India and China. He stressed that the welfare of nearly three billion people depends on closer India-China cooperation, underscoring that future ties must be based on mutual trust, respect, and sensitivity to each other’s concerns.

President Xi Jinping, in his remarks, said India and China must view each other as development partners rather than rivals. He urged both countries to adopt a long-term, strategic approach to bilateral relations, while also calling for a commitment to multilateralism, a multipolar world order, and peace in Asia. Xi emphasised that as the world’s two most populous nations and key members of the Global South, India and China have a historic responsibility to work together for regional and global prosperity.

The backdrop to the talks was Trump’s tariff push, which has already imposed 50 per cent duties on Indian goods and threatened China with 200 per cent tariffs over rare-earth exports. Against this context, the Modi-Xi meeting appeared not just as a choice, but a necessity, as both nations seek to safeguard their economic and strategic interests while recalibrating ties after years of strain following the Galwan clashes.