New Delhi: Ahead of his key visit to China, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for Beijing and New Delhi to work together to bring stability to the currently volatile international economy system, even as India and Japan voiced “serious concern” over tensions in the East and South China Seas and reaffirmed their commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Modi will travel directly from Tokyo to Tianjin on Saturday (August 30) to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, where he is scheduled to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday. This will be his first visit to China in seven years, since 2018.

In written responses to Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun, Modi said there had been “steady and positive progress” in Sino-Indian ties since he and Xi met on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Kazan last year.

That meeting came shortly after India and China concluded a patrolling agreement, marking the end of the military stand-off in eastern Ladakh that had frozen relations for four years.

Since then, there has been a high frequency of senior-level exchanges between the two countries, with the most recent being Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to India earlier this month.

“Stable, predictable and amicable bilateral relations between India and China, as two neighbours and the two largest nations on earth, can have a positive impact on regional and global peace and prosperity. This is also crucial for a multi-polar Asia and a multi-polar world,” Modi said.

Modi, alluding to the US tariffs in his reference to the “global economic situation”, said that cooperation between India and China was vital.

“Given the current volatility in world economy, it is also important for India and China, as two major economies, to work together to bring stability to the world economic order. India is ready to advance bilateral relations from a strategic and long-term perspective on the basis of mutual respect, mutual interest and mutual sensitivity, and to enhance strategic communication to address our developmental challenges,” he said in the interview to the Japanese paper published on Friday.

The initial thaw in India-China relations may have begun before US President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, but it has unfolded at a time when New Delhi’s ties with Washington are under strain.

The US has imposed tariffs of 50% on Indian exports, which include a 25% penalty for buying Russian oil.

China had earlier faced tariffs as high as 140%, but under an agreement reached in May its baseline tariff now stands at 30%.

Even as Modi spoke of strengthening ties with Beijing, the joint statement released in Tokyo after his talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday carried strong language on Chinese activity in the disputed regions of the Indo-Pacific.

The two leaders said they had “expressed serious concern over the situation in the East China Sea and the South China Sea” and “reiterated their strong opposition to any unilateral actions that endanger the safety as well as freedom of navigation and overflight, and attempt to change the status quo by force or coercion.”

They also noted their “serious concern over the militarisation of disputed features” and reaffirmed that disputes must be resolved peacefully and in accordance with international law, particularly the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The language marked a sharper tone compared to the joint statement issued at the 14th annual summit in 2022.

The statement said the two leaders had “resolved to uphold the international order based on the rule of law” and reaffirmed their commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific that is “peaceful, prosperous and resilient”.

It noted that India and Japan would continue to work with “like-minded countries” through forums such as the Quad with Australia and the US “to promote peace, stability and prosperity in the region”.

The two sides welcomed the Quad’s “evolution into a vital and enduring regional grouping” and recorded that India will host the next Quad Leaders’ Summit later this year.

Beijing has repeatedly criticised the Quad, calling it a “mini-NATO” and alleging that it seeks to form an exclusive “clique” designed to contain China’s influence.

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