New Delhi, 16 August — Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will embark on a two-day visit to India from Monday to hold the next round of high-level boundary talks with National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced on Saturday. The visit comes at a crucial juncture, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi scheduled to travel to China later this month for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, amid renewed efforts by New Delhi and Beijing to stabilise ties strained since the deadly Galwan clashes of 2020.
According to the MEA, Wang, who is also a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China, will arrive in India on August 18 at the invitation of NSA Doval. “During his visit, he will hold the 24th round of the Special Representatives’ (SR) talks on the India-China boundary question with India’s SR, NSA Doval,” the statement said. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is also scheduled to hold bilateral talks with his Chinese counterpart.
The Doval-Wang meeting will mark the continuation of the SR-level dialogue mechanism on the boundary question, which has remained the principal political channel to manage disputes along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Doval last visited Beijing in December 2024 for the 23rd round of talks, only weeks after Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed in the Russian city of Kazan to revive suspended dialogue mechanisms between the two countries.
The SR dialogue assumes added significance as it comes after India and China completed disengagement from the last remaining friction points in eastern Ladakh — Demchok and Depsang — under an agreement finalised on October 21 last year. That pact effectively ended the four-year-long military standoff that had begun in May 2020, culminating in the bloody clashes at Galwan in June the same year that left soldiers on both sides dead and relations at their lowest point in decades.
Wang’s Delhi talks will also set the stage for Prime Minister Modi’s upcoming trip to China, where he is expected to attend the SCO summit in Tianjin on August 31–September 1. Modi will first travel to Japan around August 29, before heading to China. The visit is being closely watched in both capitals, as it would mark Modi’s first bilateral engagement on Chinese soil since the Ladakh crisis erupted.
The SCO summit is significant not just as a multilateral platform but also as a potential backdrop for another Modi-Xi meeting. The two leaders last met in Kazan on October 23, 2024, where they agreed to push forward the disengagement process and resume confidence-building measures, including cultural exchanges, religious pilgrimages, and tourism links.
Since the Kazan breakthrough, both sides have taken incremental steps to rebuild confidence. The Kailash Mansarovar Yatra was resumed after being suspended for years, and India restarted issuing tourist visas to Chinese nationals earlier this year. Discussions are also underway to resume direct commercial flights between the two countries, which were halted during the Covid-19 pandemic and never restored due to the military standoff.
At the political level, senior Indian ministers have travelled to China in recent months. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Jaishankar both attended SCO-related meetings in Beijing, signalling a willingness to gradually normalise diplomatic exchanges.
Despite these measures, the shadow of the Galwan clashes continues to loom over the relationship. The violence in June 2020 shattered decades of carefully managed peace along the LAC, triggering nationalist anger in India and hardening political positions. Trade between the two nations remains robust, but trust is yet to be restored. Indian officials have repeatedly emphasised that “normalcy in ties cannot be achieved without peace on the border.”
Analysts note that the boundary talks in Delhi will be crucial in determining whether Beijing is willing to take further steps beyond disengagement — such as addressing broader concerns over patrolling rights and restoring the status quo ante. For India, progress on these fronts would provide the political space for Modi to pursue a more pragmatic engagement with China during his SCO trip.
Wang Yi’s visit also underscores Beijing’s interest in stabilising ties with New Delhi at a time when its relations with Washington remain fraught and its regional diplomacy faces challenges. For India, managing the China relationship has become a delicate balancing act — maintaining strategic partnerships with the US and its Quad allies while keeping channels open with Beijing to avoid border escalations.
With the SCO chairmanship currently held by China, the optics of Modi attending the summit in Tianjin alongside Xi will carry symbolic weight. Officials in Delhi believe that a stable, if not warm, working relationship between Modi and Xi will be essential for managing both bilateral tensions and broader Asian security dynamics.
What lies ahead
As Wang Yi arrives in Delhi, the focus will be on whether the 24th round of SR talks can move beyond crisis-management towards a more durable framework for peace along the LAC. While no major breakthroughs are expected immediately, officials say the resumption of regular dialogue itself signals intent.
For Modi, the challenge lies in striking a balance between domestic expectations of firmness against China and the geopolitical need for stability in one of India’s most consequential bilateral relationships.
The coming weeks — with Wang’s visit, Modi’s trip to Japan and China, and the SCO summit — are likely to shape the trajectory of India-China ties in the post-Galwan era.
