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Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his two-day visit to India beginning Monday (August 18, 2025), according to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

The meeting, to be held on Tuesday (August 19, 2025), assumes significance as it is taking place days before PM Modi’s planned trip to China to attend the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

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Before calling on the Prime Minister, Mr. Wang will hold separate talks with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval that could see both sides deliberate on a range of key issues, including the border situation, trade and resumption of flight services.

The Chinese Foreign Minister’s visit is largely seen as part of ongoing efforts by the two neighbours to rebuild their relationship after it came under severe strain following the deadly Galwan Valley clashes in 2020.

The two sides are expected to discuss new confidence-building measures for durable peace and tranquillity along their contested border during Mr. Wang’s visit, people familiar with the matter said on Sunday (August 17, 2025).

Mr. Wang’s trip is also seen as important as it comes amid increasing tensions in India-U.S. relations following President Donald Trump doubling tariffs on Indian goods to 50% which included an additional penalty of 25% for purchasing Russian crude oil.

According to details released by the MEA, the Chinese Foreign Minister will land in New Delhi at around 4:15 p.m. on Monday (August 18, 2025). He will meet Jaishankar for bilateral talks at around 6 p.m.

Mr. Wang and NSA Doval are scheduled to hold a new edition of Special Representatives (SR) dialogue on the boundary question at 11 a.m. on Tuesday (August 19, 2025).

According to the MEA, Mr. Wang will call on PM Modi at his 7 Lok Kalyan Marg residence at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday (August 19, 2025).

The Chinese Foreign Minister will be in India primarily to hold the 24th round of SR dialogue with NSA Doval.

Mr. Wang and Mr. Doval are the designated special representatives for the boundary talks.

Both sides are expected to deliberate on new confidence-building measures besides reviewing the overall situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the people cited above said.

Though the two sides disengaged troops from the friction points, they are yet to de-escalate the situation by pulling back the frontline forces from the border.

Each side currently has around 50,000 to 60,000 troops along the LAC in the eastern Ladakh region.

The Chinese Foreign Minister will also meet External Affairs Minister Jaishankar.

It is learnt that the two sides will also use the opportunity to lay the ground for Prime Minister Modi’s visit to China to attend the annual summit of the SCO to be held on August 31 and September 1.

As per the plan, the Prime Minister will embark on a visit to Japan around August 29 and after concluding the trip, he will travel to the northern Chinese city of Tianjin for the SCO summit.

PM Modi’s visit to China is being planned amid efforts by the two sides to repair their bilateral ties which came under severe strain following the deadly clashes between Indian and Chinese troops in Galwan Valley in June 2020.

NSA Doval travelled to China in December last and held the SR talks with Mr. Wang, weeks after Prime Minister Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping decided to revive various dialogue mechanisms between the two sides at a meeting in the Russian city of Kazan.

The military standoff in eastern Ladakh began in May 2020 and the clashes at the Galwan Valley in June that year resulted in a severe strain in bilateral ties.

The face-off effectively ended following completion of the disengagement process from the last two friction points of Demchok and Depsang under an agreement finalised on October 21 last year.

The decision to revive various dialogue mechanisms was taken at a meeting between Prime Minister Modi and Chinese President Xi in Kazan on October 23, 2024.

The Modi-Xi meeting came two days after India and China firmed up a disengagement pact for Depsang and Demchok.

The two sides also initiated a number of initiatives to rebuild the ties that included resumption of Kailash Mansarovar Yatra and New Delhi restarting issuance of tourist visas to Chinese nationals.

Both sides are also discussing modalities to resume direct flight services between the two countries. The flight services between the two sides were suspended following the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. It was not restored in view of the border row.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Jaishankar visited China in the last two months to attend SCO meetings.

China is the current chair of the SCO.

Published – August 17, 2025 09:56 pm IST

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi will be visiting India from August 18 to 20 to hold 24th round of talks between the Special Representatives of China and India.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

New Delhi:

India and China have shown a sudden zeal to improve ties since the disengagement along the Line of Actual Control a little over a month ago. The relationship between the two most populous nations in the world was on reverse gear since the military stand-off in Ladakh more than four years ago.

However, since November the momentum has boomeranged and seems to be on overdrive – almost as though both sides want to make up for the time lost since 2020. New Delhi and Beijing understand well that for Asia to see lasting peace, the two Asian giants must lead the way. Nowhere is there a better start to this, than to find a solution to the boundary issue. And so, both sides seem to have made this a priority.

National Security Adviser Ajit Doval will be meeting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday for a top-level meet to discuss the boundary issue. Though there has been no confirmation of this meeting from New Delhi yet, Beijing has said so in a foreign ministry statement.

“Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval will meet on Wednesday in Beijing to discuss the China-India boundary question,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said in a statement on Monday.

“As agreed by China and India, Wang Yi and Ajit Doval will hold the 23rd meeting of Special Representatives for China-India boundary question in Beijing on December 18,” Chinese ambassador Xu Feihong said on X.

This would be the first such meeting in five years – the last one being held in New Delhi in December 2019.

Since their first meeting more than a decade ago, both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping had given importance to finding a solution for effective border management, and the meeting in December 2019 was the 22nd meeting in the series of discussions to find a solution to settle any differences along the more-than 4,000 km Line of Actual Control or LAC.

The LAC has no clear demarcations and both sides have their differences in understanding of where the boundary lies in the harsh and arguably most difficult terrain, which span the highest mountain ranges in the world – The Himalayas. The border, originally between India and Tibet is now considered the boundary between India and China after Tibet’s takeover by China in 1959.

Both sides have, on several occasions, seen military face-offs by border patrol parties, each having their understanding of where exactly the boundary lies – which point on the mountain, valley or rivers mark or indicate the LAC. Though there are buffer zones created at several points along the LAC, even there, differences often crop up in how each side demarcates the boundary.

To find a solution to this, India and China had started boundary talks, but all of that came to a grinding halt after the deadly clashes between the two armies in 2020 in Galwan Valley in Ladakh, which saw soldiers from both sides killed in action.

It took more than four years of diplomacy and dialogue at the military and diplomatic levels for both sides to disengage – an agreement for which was reached in October this year, culminating is a rare formal meeting – also the first in five years – between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The meeting took place on the sidelines of a BRICS summit in Russia.
 

New Delhi:

India and China have shown a sudden zeal to improve ties since the disengagement along the Line of Actual Control a little over a month ago. The relationship between the two most populous nations in the world was on reverse gear since the military stand-off in Ladakh more than four years ago.

However, since November the momentum has boomeranged and seems to be on overdrive – almost as though both sides want to make up for the time lost since 2020. New Delhi and Beijing understand well that for Asia to see lasting peace, the two Asian giants must lead the way. Nowhere is there a better start to this, than to find a solution to the boundary issue. And so, both sides seem to have made this a priority.

National Security Adviser Ajit Doval will be meeting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday for a top-level meet to discuss the boundary issue. Though there has been no confirmation of this meeting from New Delhi yet, Beijing has said so in a foreign ministry statement.

“Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval will meet on Wednesday in Beijing to discuss the China-India boundary question,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said in a statement on Monday.

“As agreed by China and India, Wang Yi and Ajit Doval will hold the 23rd meeting of Special Representatives for China-India boundary question in Beijing on December 18,” Chinese Ambassador Xu Feihong said on X.

This would be the first such meeting in five years – the last one being held in New Delhi in December 2019.

Since their first meeting more than a decade ago, both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping had given importance to finding a solution for effective border management, and the meeting in December 2019 was the 22nd meeting in the series of discussions to find a solution to settle any differences along the more-than 4,000 km Line of Actual Control or LAC.

The LAC has no clear demarcations and both sides have their differences in understanding of where the boundary lies in the harsh and arguably most difficult terrain, which span the highest mountain ranges in the world – The Himalayas. The border, originally between India and Tibet is now considered the boundary between India and China after Tibet’s takeover by China in 1959.

Both sides have, on several occasions, seen military face-offs by border patrol parties, each having their understanding of where exactly the boundary lies – which point on the mountain, valley or rivers mark or indicate the LAC. Though there are buffer zones created at several points along the LAC, even there, differences often crop up in how each side demarcates the boundary.

To find a solution to this, India and China had started boundary talks, but all of that came to a grinding halt after the deadly clashes between the two armies in 2020 in Galwan Valley in Ladakh, which saw soldiers from both sides killed in action.

It took more than four years of diplomacy and dialogue at the military and diplomatic levels for both sides to disengage – an agreement for which was reached in October this year, culminating is a rare formal meeting – also the first in five years – between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The meeting took place on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Russia.