Prime Minister Narendra Modi will travel to Tianjin, China, from August 31 to September 1, to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, marking his first visit to the country since the Galwan Valley clash in 2020. His last trip to China was in 2019.
Before the SCO summit, Modi will visit Japan on August 30 for the annual India-Japan Summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. From Tokyo, he will head to China, according to sources.
The visit comes at a time when US President Donald Trump has intensified criticism of the BRICS nations for purchasing oil from Russia and for what he claims is their challenge to the dominance of the US dollar.
While China was at the forefront of the US tariff war, which saw duties rise to triple digits, the Trump administration has rolled back most tariffs to 30 per cent amid ongoing negotiations.
At the same time, Trump has targeted India over its trade with Russia, imposing a 25 per cent tariff and threatening further measures.
In the lead-up to Modi’s trip, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval visited China for SCO-related meetings, followed by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s trip to Beijing, where he met Chinese President Xi Jinping.
In June, Singh attended the SCO Defence Ministers’ meeting in Qingdao, China, where he declined to sign a document that, according to sources, would have weakened India’s position on terrorism and the Pahalgam terror attack, which killed 26 people.
Due to differences over the issue, the SCO did not release a joint statement.
Sources said China, which currently holds the SCO chair, and its ally Pakistan sought to divert the focus from terrorism in the draft document, omitting mention of the Pahalgam attack.
Instead, the document referred to Balochistan — a move seen by India as a veiled attempt to accuse it of fomenting unrest in the Pakistani province.
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