The Narendra Modi-Xi Jinping meeting in Tianjin on August 31, 2025, on the sidelines of the 25th summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), has drawn international attention because it comes in the wake of India’s plummeting relations with the US. The improvement in India-China relations has been taking place since Prime Minister Modi and Chinese President Xi met in Kazan, Russia, in October 2024, on the sidelines of the previous SCO summit — their first meeting since the serious clashes between Indian and Chinese forces in Galwan in eastern Ladakh in 2020.

The worsening of India-US relations has imparted a significant momentum to the ongoing Sino-Indian rapprochement. The summit did not announce any steps towards de-escalation and de-induction of the more than 50,000 troops ranged on each side of the border in eastern Ladakh. Modi welcomed the stabilisation of the border situation, but to re-establish peace and tranquility, much more needs to follow. The Chinese military alliance with Pakistan remains a major security concern for India. China finds Pakistan a most useful proxy to keep India tethered in the subcontinent and will do whatever is necessary to enable Pakistan to play that role effectively. China has, in the past, supported Pakistan with military hardware and even enabled it to acquire nuclear weapons capability in the 1980s. During the recent Operation Sindoor, China went beyond hardware support to play a........

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