New Delhi: India said on August 31 that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping, meeting in Tianjin during Modi’s first visit to China in seven years, stressed that their ties should be guided by “strategic autonomy” and “not be seen through a third country lens,” while both leaders also described New Delhi and Beijing as “partners, not rivals” against the backdrop of sweeping US trade tariffs.The meeting at the Tianjin Guest House was Modi’s first bilateral engagement with Xi since October 2024 in Kazan, which both sides credited with putting ties back on a more positive track. The Tianjin talks were also the first bilateral visit by either leader to the other’s country since 2018.Across the table at the Tianjin Guest House, Xi was joined by foreign minister Wang Yi and CPC politburo standing committee member Cai Qi, while Modi was accompanied by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and foreign secretary Vikram Misri. External affairs minister S. Jaishankar did not travel with the official delegation to Japan and China.No Third-Party LensSignificantly, the Indian readout noted that Modi “underlined that India and China both pursue strategic autonomy, and their relations should not be seen through a third country lens”.Beijing’s account also placed the formulation within its summary of Modi’s remarks. “India and China adhere to strategic autonomy and independent diplomacy. Relations between the two countries are not affected by third parties,” said the Chinese foreign ministry press release.Keeping in mind how the phrase has been used in the past in the India–China context, the reference to “strategic autonomy” can also be read alongside recent pronouncements by Chinese leadership.Referring to the recent Chinese readout of foreign minister Wang Yi’s meeting call on the prime minister and public remarks made by the Chinese ambassador about jointly resisting US “bullying” on tariffs, India’s former envoy to China, Ashok K. Kantha, observed that Beijing was seeking to frame bilateral ties through the prism of relations with the US but Prime Minister had told Xi that India-China ties “should not be seen through a third country lens”.He said our position implied that “India’s desire to improve relations to China should not be linked to the current difficulties in its relations with the US”, adding, “We don’t want to fall into a trap.” He pointed out that the process of step-by-step improvement in the relations with China commenced after the Modi-Xi meeting at Kazan last October, well before difficulties surfaced with the US in the second Trump administrationThere may also be a temptation in world capitals to read the current thaw as a quick return to normalcy in India-China ties, courtesy of Donald Trump’s trade policy. One of his trade advisers had even accused India of cosying up to Beijing.Signs of warming, however, were already visible in the first half of 2024, when major Indian corporate groups began pushing for collaboration with Chinese companies after years of restrictions during the freeze. The economic pressure from Washington, which has rattled New Delhi, will remain a key factor in how it calibrates ties with other major powers.In his opening remarks, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said their talks in Kazan had given “a positive direction” to ties, adding that “after the disengagement on the border, an atmosphere of peace and stability has been created” with the frontier quiet for the past year. He noted that the Special Representatives had reached an understanding on border management, while the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra and direct flights between the two countries had also resumed.Modi said the interests of “2.8 billion people” were tied to India–China cooperation, which “will also pave the way for the welfare of the entire humanity,” and reaffirmed commitment to advance relations “on the basis of mutual trust, respect and sensitivity.” Xi described the Kazan meeting as a “reset” and said both sides had since made progress in exchanges and cooperation on the basis of that consensus. “The world today is swept by once-in-a-century transformations. The international situation is both fluid and chaotic,” he said, setting the scene for their talks.Rivals No More?Both the Indian and Chinese readouts echoed language that the two Asian giants were “partners and not rivals”. Both readouts stressed that India and China were “partners and not rivals.” The Indian statement said the two sides “reaffirmed” this and agreed their differences should not become disputes, while the Chinese account noted that identifying the direction of “partners rather than opponents” would keep relations “broad-minded, stable and long-term.”Kantha noted that India had stopped using the formulation of “developmental partners, not rivals” for some time, largely due to dissatisfaction over Chinese conduct at the border and other concerns. Its reappearance this time was significant, he said. “Can we really say that right now?”Asked about the apparent contradiction between this language and the reality of troops still deployed at the frontier, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said the formulation was a “framing of the relationship” by both leaders. “This is what is desired and this is what they see as the future of the relationship as well,” he told reporters at a briefing in Tianjin. While acknowledging that “the troops at the border… are a reality,” Misri described it as a situation that had “started evolving over the course of the last year as the situation at the borders has become more or is moving towards normalisation.” He added that despite this crisis, “the future that we should aspire to, the future that we should aim at… is one of partnership and not one of rivalry”.Mind the GapOn the border issue, the Indian readout was more detailed, noting the ‘successful disengagement last year’ and that ‘peace and tranquillity’ had prevailed at the frontier since then.It said the leaders committed to a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable resolution of the boundary question “proceeding from the political perspective of their overall bilateral relations and the long-term interests of the two peoples”. This language that also appeared in the Indian account of the Special Representatives’ talks earlier this month.The Chinese statement, by contrast, avoided reference to disengagement, saying the two sides should “work together to maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas” and cautioning against letting the boundary issue “define overall China–India relations,” a position Beijing has long held.Misri pushed back on this line, saying India had always held that the situation at the frontier would inevitably affect ties. “The insurance policy for bilateral relations is to maintain peace and tranquility on the boundary,” he said, stressing that this had also been made clear by the prime minister.The foreign secretary stated that cross-border terrorism was raised by the prime minister as a priority in his talks with Xi, describing it as a scourge that had victimised both India and China and stressing the need for “understanding and support” from each other in combating it. “We have received the understanding and cooperation of China as we have dealt with the issue of cross-border terrorism in the context of the ongoing SCO summit,” he said, adding that “the Chinese have extended their support in various ways on addressing this issue.”The senior Indian diplomat seemed to indicate that the SCO joint statement to be released on September 1 will have language against terrorism which will satisfy New Delhi.The matter has been sensitive given Pakistan’s membership of the grouping and its close ties with China. In May, India and Pakistan exchanged missiles and drones for four days after New Delhi accused Islamabad of involvement in the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. Indian military officials also alleged that China provided real-time inputs to Pakistan, which used Chinese jets and other defence equipment during the clashes.With economic ties a key driver of New Delhi’s push to improve relations with Beijing, the Indian readout said the leaders agreed to expand commerce, reduce the deficit and move in a “political and strategic direction” to enhance “transparency and predictability,” while stressing the role of the two economies in stabilising global trade.The deficit has long been a concern for India. China is its second-largest trading partner, with bilateral trade in 2024-25 at $128 billion – imports of $113.5 billion against exports of just $14.25 billion. The resulting $99.2-billion gap is India’s largest with any country and makes up a third of its overall trade deficit.The Chinese press release made no mention of the imbalance, instead framing economic ties in broader terms, saying “development is the biggest common denominator in China-India relations” and that cooperation should be seen as “mutual development opportunities rather than threats.”A former Indian diplomat observed that the real significance of the talks lay less in outcomes and more in the messaging. “The importance of the visit lies in its optics,” he said, noting that such brief meetings, much of which are taken up by translation, are not designed to produce concrete results.Note: This article was updated at 8.16 am on September 1, 2025, to make Ashok Kantha’s quotes clearer.