Illustration: Xia Qing/GT

 At the invitation of Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, India's External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar is scheduled to attend the Meeting of the Council of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Member States in Tianjin on July 15, and will also pay a visit to China. This marks his first visit to China in five years.

On Monday, Chinese Vice President Han Zheng met with Jaishankar in Beijing. Han said China and India are both major developing countries and important members of the Global South. It is the right choice for both sides to be partners contributing to each other's success and realize the "Dragon-Elephant Tango." 

During his talks with Jaishankar, Wang stated that the two sides should build mutual trust instead of suspicion, pursue cooperation instead of rivalry, and support each other's success instead of wearing each other down. 

Jaishankar said that India-China relations have shown steady improvement, and said in a statement released by India's Ministry of External Affairs that "continued normalization of our ties can produce mutually beneficial outcomes."

It is not hard to see that China and India currently share a notable consensus - the continued improvement of bilateral relations is both the right path and a beneficial one. Phrases such as "continued thawing," "on the mend," "back on track," and "slowly improving" reflect the generally optimistic expectations in Indian public opinion regarding Jaishankar's visit to China. Compared with the past, the Indian side's tone and messaging have also become more positive and pragmatic.

From a longer-term perspective, the fact that this is the Indian foreign minister's first visit to China in five years highlights the "abnormal state" of China-India diplomacy. However, following the successful meeting between the two leaders in Kazan last October - which marked a fresh restart for bilateral relations - this breakthrough in high-level diplomatic engagement now stands as another sign of steady improvement in China-India ties. Any effort that helps restore the normal mechanisms of communication between the two sides should be viewed positively.

But the steady improvement of China-India relations - especially their long-term, healthy, and stable development - still requires both sides to build resilient strategic trust based on mutual respect for each other's core concerns.

Jaishankar's visit to China becoming a focus of public attention is no coincidence; it reflects the long and difficult process of repairing bilateral ties. In recent years, the border dispute has cast a deep shadow over the relationship and has been a source of misunderstanding, hostility, and strategic suspicion toward China among some in India.

Moreover, some Indian strategic circles have shown reluctance to make a clean break with the remnants of the "Tibetan independence" exile forces, repeatedly testing China's bottom lines and eroding the foundation of political mutual trust between the two countries. Meanwhile, some countries like the US have long sought to exploit gaps and drive wedges between China and India in an attempt to hinder their common development, adding another layer of disturbance to the relationship. 

China and India are currently at a crossroads, facing both the risk of real-world frictions and the prospect of broad cooperation. Against this backdrop, the continuous advancement and deepening of China-India bilateral exchanges, including high-level diplomatic interactions, provide both countries with an important opportunity to re-examine each other's strategic positioning and to enhance mutual understanding and communication. In particular, when it comes to shaping the security order in the Asia-Pacific region, the smoother the coordination and dialogue between China and India, the less uncertainty the entire region will face.

For China, it remains committed to the path of peaceful development, viewing its neighbors not as competitors but as partners in pursuit of common development and mutual success. For India, if it can move beyond misperceptions of China and approach China from the perspective of its own developmental interests, it will help reduce misjudgments and create more opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation.

There are still many concrete issues that China and India need to address. This also means there is great potential for improving bilateral relations. For instance, the boundary question remains the most sensitive and complex issue in their relationship. 

Building a stable and effective border trust mechanism, restoring strategic dialogue platforms, and strengthening multi-level security cooperation are indispensable steps for China-India relations toward mature. Promoting the resumption of direct flights, restarting people-to-people exchanges, and boosting academic and think tank visits - these tangible improvements will help cultivate more genuine and lasting mutual trust at the societal level. 

Another positive aspect of China-India interactions is that they open up new space for cooperation between the two countries on multilateral platforms. Within frameworks such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and BRICS, China and India have already established basic mechanisms for cooperation. If the two countries can further strengthen coordination in jointly addressing global challenges, they will inject greater stability into the processes of world multipolarity and South-South cooperation.

China-India relations won't improve overnight. Strategic mutual trust cannot be achieved through a single meeting or a single joint statement; it must be gradually built up through long-term, sustained, and measurable interactions. What it requires is enduring political will, pragmatic consultative mechanisms, and most importantly, mutual respect for each other's core concerns. The window for dialogue in China-India relations is now being opened; seizing the opportunity to build trust is the most important task at this moment. As two Asia's most influential countries, cooperation will continue to outweigh differences in the long run. 

At a time when unilateral protectionism and power-based bullying are posing serious challenges to the world, the more the two countries can eliminate misjudgments and hedge against external risks through sustained dialogue, the better positioned they will be to take the initiative to stand at the forefront in the reshaping of the global order.