Iran has attempted to blockade the Strait, demanding all ships seek its authorisation to cross. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. File.
| Photo Credit: AP

Iran’s Petroleum Minister Mohsen Paknejad. Photo: @HardeepSPuri/X via PTI Photo

(This article is part of the View From India newsletter curated by The Hindu’s foreign affairs experts. To get the newsletter in your inbox every Monday, subscribe here.)

U.S. President Donald Trump hosted his Chinese counterpart in Washington on September 23-25, marking the second meeting between the leaders of the world’s two largest economies this year. The summit was high on symbolism, with Mr. Trump welcoming the Chinese leader on the tarmac of Joint Base Andrews. Later, at a state dinner, Mr. Trump said the leaders had “never gotten along better”. While the U.S. side placed considerable emphasis on the personal chemistry between the leaders and both parties agreed to hold more high-level meetings, there were few tangible outcomes on the structural issues that continue to strain the relationship. 

The summit took place against the backdrop of two conflicts–in Ukraine and Iran– as well as a continuing trade dispute between the U.S. and China. Beijing has a close strategic partnership with Russia, whose invasion of Ukraine has entered its fifth year. China also remains the largest trading and economic partner of Iran, which was bombed by the U.S. and Israel on February 28, 2026. American policymakers want China to distance itself from both Russia and Iran. Earlier this month, Mr. Trump signed the Russia sanctions Bill into law, giving him powers to impose tariffs up to 100% on countries that buy oil and gas from Russia. But China has shown no signs that it is reconsidering its relations with Russia and Iran. On trade, the U.S. and China agreed to extend the existing detente by two more months, but tensions remain beneath the surface. For Beijing, as it has made clear repeatedly, Taiwan and the U.S. support for the island remain the brightest of its red lines. 

Yet, despite their disagreements and the challenges confronting the relationship, Washington and Beijing seem determined to manage their ties without allowing tensions to escalate into conflict. To understand this evolving recalibration – its context and substance – I spoke to Ananth Krishnan, The Hindu’s correspondent in China and the author of India’s China Challenge. Here is what he had to say:

What’s your key takeaway from the Trump-Xi meeting?

Ananth Krishnan: The visit definitely seemed to be more about pomp and symbolism than substance. The optics were no doubt striking, starting with Trump receiving Xi at the airport. Both leaders were also effusive in their praise of the other. One striking fact is the frequency of their meetings. They agreed to meet two more times this year at APEC in Shenzhen and at the G20 in Miami. Clearly, both sides see this frequency of four meetings in one year, including Trump’s May visit to China, as key to sustaining this current effort at stability.

A key takeaway for me is how much the U.S. appears to have bought into China’s idea of what both sides now call a “constructive relationship of strategic stability based on fairness and reciprocity”. This may sound vague and unimportant, especially as the other concrete outcomes on trade were rather modest, limited to just an extension of their current truce. But below the surface, to me it hints at a new equilibrium and at an effort by both to better manage their rivalry, even if they can’t solve outstanding issues.

How does China look at ties with the U.S. under Trump? G2, strategic stability or just managing the competition?

Ananth Krishnan: Publicly at least, Chinese officials disavow the idea of a G2. Privately, they certainly look at China and the U.S. as being in a league of their own, and perhaps understandably so. I would say they look at the relationship as a blend of two of the latter terms you suggested – a certainly competitive relationship that needs to be managed, and an aspiration of some kind of strategic stability that sees red lines protected. For China, the biggest red line, of course, is Taiwan. What has changed perhaps is how this competitive relationship is seen.

I found interesting what Da Wei, who’s a leading voice in Beijing on China-US relations, argued in his recent Foreign Affairs essay, where he said China was looking at the relationship “from a position of greater equality and with more confidence” and was “less anxious that competition will undermine its national development prospects”. I don’t think they are under any illusion that this visit will solve the serious structural problems in a fundamentally competitive relationship, with unresolved issues from semiconductors to rare earths. But the last few years have, however, appeared to have given China greater confidence in how they manage it. 

What does this new equilibrium mean for India? In this editorial, published on September 28, The Hindu argues that New Delhi should carefully watch the evolving great power relationship. “The recent U.S. tariff threats aimed at India have offered a stark contrast to the measured language with which Washington has been engaging Beijing. For long, a strand of Indian strategic thinking has been predicated on the assumption that U.S. strategy in the region was centred on the idea of a relationship with India as a bulwark against Chinese influence. That assumption increasingly appears open to question.”

U.S.-Greenland deal 

Mr. Trump’s threat to take over Greenland, an ice-covered Danish territory located between the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic Ocean, had strained the transatlantic relationship earlier this year. Greenland, Denmark and America’s European allies had pushed back against the U.S. leader. But under the shadow of the takeover threat, officials from the U.S., Denmark and Greenland continued talks to reach a diplomatic agreement acceptable to all sides. That agreement was signed last week in New York, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

Under the agreement, the U.S. would respect Danish sovereignty and Greenlanders’ right to self-determination, but would boost its military presence on the island and would have a say in its economic and investment policies. Why does the U.S., which already has a military agreement with Denmark for troop presence in Greenland, want to tighten its control over the Arctic island? Read this explainer: The Arctic race.

Published – September 28, 2026 12:36 pm IST

Mojtaba Khamenei. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

There was a moment in the second half of the Asian Games kabaddi gold-medal match against Iran when Aslam Inamdar made a daring raid deep into the opposition half.

His teammate Pawan Sehrawat groaned inwardly as he did so. India’s lead was narrow. Iran was still in the contest. It was a risk that could have gone badly wrong. “It was a bad decision,” Pawan would say later. But Inamdar made the dash count, securing two touches and emerging unscathed. The points brought India closer to victory. “It was a wrong move, but ant bhala toh sab bhala (if the end is good, it’s all worth it),” Inamdar said after the match.

He grinned when he recalled the sequence later. It had been a tough decision to make. Wasn’t he worried when he made that move? What would have happened if it had gone wrong? “Bhai, I’ve gone through things you wouldn’t even imagine. This is nothing,” he said.

That, in many ways, is the story of Aslam Inamdar.

There was a time when, as a 14-year-old, he travelled across Maharashtra in search of kabaddi tournaments without even having enough money for a train ticket. He slept under train seats, survived on stale vada pav or whatever food was available at tournaments. He sometimes stuffed leftover food which often spilled into his bag. “If there was work to be done, I did it. I’ve cleaned toilets. I’ve sold juice and made tea. I’ve worked in fields. If there was a kabaddi tournament to play, I found a way to get there.”

In Nagoya on Saturday, Inamdar stood on the mat as India beat Iran to win the men’s kabaddi gold. It is his second Asian Games gold medal. The distance between those two versions of Inamdar is difficult even for him to comprehend.

“It still feels like a dream to me,” he said. “I often think about how someone who didn’t even have food at home holds two international medals.”

The medals are the latest chapter in a journey that began at Takli Bhan in Maharashtra’s Ahilyanagar district, where Inamdar grew up as one of five children.

His father passed away when he was young, leaving his mother to raise the family. She worked in other homes, doing household chores and washing utensils, to keep the family going. Later, his elder brother Waseem joined the police force and took responsibility, including helping arrange the marriages of their two sisters.

Money was scarce. Inamdar remembers growing up in a house without proper flooring or roof. There were times when even food was difficult to come by.

So, he learnt early that work meant survival. At 11 or 12, he collected discarded bottles and sold them to scrap dealers to buy food. Later, he worked at tea stalls and juice bars, washed utensils, cleaned washrooms and worked in farm fields. He admits he stole sometimes. “It was just to fill my stomach. I faced many hard situations without letting them break me,” he said.

Through all of it, there was one constant: kabaddi. Waseem was a well-known player across several districts while senior player Rahul Bhor also inspired him. Inamdar wanted to establish his own identity. “No matter how long I worked during the day or night, I always went to the ground to train,” the raider said.

Kabaddi was a sport he could afford. It required little equipment, and the village ground was enough. For a boy with very little money, it offered something priceless: a chance. By the time he was 14 or 15, Inamdar was travelling alone to tournaments to compete in the 50kg and 55kg categories. He earned between ₹200 and ₹500 a match.

The money was little, but it mattered. It bought him meals when he might otherwise have gone hungry. More importantly, it kept him moving from one tournament to the next.

The path was neither smooth nor uninterrupted. In 2014, while India competed at the Asian Games, Inamdar was at home nursing a fractured leg and following kabaddi on television. His life at the time seemed a world away from an international career. “I was just watching kabaddi on TV. But I believe God’s plans are always better. My hard work never stopped.”

He kept working. Eventually, the Pro Kabaddi League changed the scale of his life.

In his first season, he earned ₹8 lakh. For someone who had once struggled to put food on the table, the money was almost incomprehensible. “Eight lakh felt like eight crore to me,” he said.

He did not forget where he had come from. With his first major earnings, he bought a gold necklace for his mother. Kabaddi had given him something that had once seemed almost impossible: financial security, recognition and a career. He went on to captain Puneri Paltan and establish himself as one of India’s leading players.

Then came the international medals. Inamdar won his first Asian Games gold in Hangzhou. Three years later in Nagoya, he has another. And once again, the final was against Iran — the one opponent which has consistently pushed India hardest at the Asian Games. “Iran is generally the most challenging opponent for us,” Inamdar said. “It has a strong defence and has very experienced players like Fazel Atrachali, who played in his fifth Asian Games.”

For Inamdar, beating such a formidable opponent made the gold more meaningful. “A tough challenge makes winning the gold medal feel even more rewarding.”

But for Inamdar, the significance of the medal lies beyond the result. It is the culmination of a journey that began when he was a boy travelling across Maharashtra for a few hundred rupees, when he collected scrap bottles for food and worked whatever jobs he could find before heading to the kabaddi ground.

Today, he tries to pass on that experience to younger players.

At his training ground in Thane, he speaks to juniors, particularly those from underprivileged backgrounds, about his own journey. He wants them to understand that difficult circumstances do not have to determine where they end up. “I want young, underprivileged players to dream big and aim to achieve even more than I have. I want them to know that whatever happens, they shouldn’t stop working hard. They shouldn’t stop believing,” he said.

Published – September 28, 2026 07:07 am IST

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian holds up photographs as he delivers remarks during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, on September 23, 2026.
| Photo Credit: AP