Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit China for the first time in seven years to attend the SCO summit. The visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to China is seen as an effort to restore diplomatic relations with Beijing as tensions with the United States rise.
Prime Minister Modi will go to China for a summit of the multilateral Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) that begins on August 31st. The government sources with direct knowledge of the matter told the international news agency.
India’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The visit will come amid India’s rising tensions with the United States and the imposition of a nearly 50% tariff by the Trump administration on India for buying Russian oil. Currently, India is facing the highest tariffs among its asian peers.
Trump has further threatened with an unspecified penalty for New Delhi’s continued purchases of Russian oil. Modi’s visit to the Chinese city of Tianjin for the summit of the SCO, a Eurasian political and security grouping that includes Russia, will be his first since June 2018.
Subsequently, Sino-Indian ties deteriorated sharply after a military clash along the disputed Himalayan border in 2020. Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks on the sidelines of the BRIC summit in Russia in October that led to a thaw. The giant Asian neighbors are now slowly defusing tensions that have hampered business relations and travel between the two countries.
Trump has also threatened to impose an additional 10 percent tariff on imports from members, which include members of the BRICS group.
Trump has accused the BRICS group of aligning itself with anti-American policies. Trump said on Wednesday that his administration would decide on the penalty for buying Russian oil after the outcome of the last-minute talks between Russia and the USA regarding the ceasefire in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Trump’s diplomatic envoy, Steve Whitkoff, also visited Moscow and had a three-hour-long discussion with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump, following the discussion following the meeting, said that he is very hopeful of bringing a resolution to the Ukraine and Russia-Ukraine conflict. Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval also arrived in Russia on a scheduled visit and is expected to discuss Indian purchases of Russian oil in the wake of Trump’s pressure on India to stop buying Russian oil.