New Delhi: India hosted Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the start of the week in New Delhi, while Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar’s photo with Russian President Vladimir Putin emerged from Moscow in the latter half. From doubling down on ties with Russia, to reaching a consensus with China on the next steps to the boundary question while dealing with a mercurial Trump, Indian diplomacy has had a lot to deal with in a very short span of time.
And India’s message from the two capitals is unmissable to a US that not long ago appeared in sync with New Delhi’s interests. All of a sudden, the great game of diplomacy has taken a modified path for India. With some questioning Delhi’s multi-polar approach undertaken in the past decade, particularly after Trump’s tariff onslaught, the burden to realign and put the pressure back on Washington has fallen on Indian diplomacy, which is now responding. And that is why it is ThePrint’s Newsmaker of the Week.
India agreed to return to the status of boundary negotiations with Beijing to the 2005 agreement ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to for the Heads of States summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). It was a significant step because the agreement bifurcated the boundary question from the “overall development of bilateral relations.”
The agreement said: “The differences on the boundary question should not be allowed to affect the overall development of bilateral relations. The two sides will resolve the boundary question through peaceful and friendly consultations. Neither side shall use or threaten to use force against the other by any means.”
However, since the military clashes at Galwan in the summer of 2020, India has maintained that “peace and tranquility” is essential for broader discussions. This had led to the India-China relationship cratering for over five years.
Political ties between the two governments publicly restarted only after the agreement to disengage at the friction points across the Line of Actual Control (LAC), on 21 October 2024.
A couple of days after the agreement, Prime Minister Modi met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the margins of the BRICS leaders’ summit in the Russian city of Kazan. And, in recent months, the speed of the thaw has increased, culminating in Wang Yi’s visit to New Delhi from 18 August to 20 August.
Under US scanner
In December 2024, Doval held a discussion with Wang Yi in China at the Special Representative level. India and China didn’t seem to be on the same page. New Delhi distanced itself from the “six-point consensus” announced by Beijing that had included an agreement on returning to the 2005 agreement. At the time, India maintained that border ties are the cornerstone for determining overall ties.
The SR-level talks earlier this week saw Doval and Wang Yi agree to create an expert group and a working group under the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC). This indicates a renewed interest in negotiating the boundary delimitation and management between the two countries.
Wang Yi’s successful visit for Chinese diplomacy, at least in terms of the return to the 2005 agreement, comes a couple of weeks ahead of Modi’s first visit to China for the SCO summit. And this recent thaw between India and Beijing has come under Washington’s scanner. Peter Navarro, the Counsellor to President Donald Trump, took note of the recent diplomatic efforts, highlighting that India is “cozying up to [President] Xi Jinping” instead of acknowledging its role in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Trump’s latest salvo against India’s ties with Russia occurred earlier this month with the imposition of 25 per cent tariffs on Indian exports to the US. The “penalty” tariffs are set to come into force next week, and will hit Indian exports with an overall tariff burden of 50 per cent.
The tariffs, according to Trump and the current American administration, are due to India’s continued purchase of Russian oil and New Delhi’s “war-profiteering”. And the negotiations for a bilateral trade deal with the US continue to flounder, which has irked the Trump administration—India has refused to open its agricultural and dairy sectors for American farmers.
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Doubling down on Russia
The US administration’s threats have so far found no purchase within New Delhi. Jaishankar travelled to Moscow for a three-day visit from 19 August to 21 August.
A significant outcome of this visit is the agreement for terms of reference for a free trade pact between India and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), the Russian-led single market that also includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, and has been in force since 2015.
This doubling down of diplomatic relations between Russia and India is bound to annoy the White House. However, some facts are contrary to Trump’s claims. India’s imports from Russia fell roughly 10 per cent between April 2025 and July 2025. Around 80 per cent of India’s imports from Moscow is crude, indicating that during this specific time period, there has likely been some reduction in oil imports from Russia.
At the same time, India’s exports to the US surged by around 21 per cent while imports increased by 12 per cent during the same period. The US remains India’s largest export market for goods. In the 2024-2025 financial year, India exported over $86 billion worth of goods to the US, which is far higher than any other country.
The second set of US tariffs is likely to come into force on 27 August—and the impact it would have on Indian exporters will be felt in the future.
However, New Delhi isn’t putting all its eggs in one basket. To expand its export footprint, India has also been negotiating free trade agreements with multiple countries. The India-UK FTA was signed last month, and reports indicate another with Oman is close to being finalised, and talks with the European Union (EU) are ongoing with a goal to finalise a deal by the end of this year—all part of New Delhi’s push to reduce its dependence on the US market.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)