Overview
- Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Executive Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu held the Strategic Dialogue in New Delhi alongside the BRICS Sherpa meeting, reiterating that peace along the LAC is essential to improving ties.
- Both sides recognized the need to conclude an updated Air Services Agreement and pledged further visa facilitation and people-to-people exchanges, with India noting the revived Kailash Mansarovar Yatra.
- The delegations agreed to approach trade issues from a political and strategic direction, and India raised sensitive concerns including Chinese export controls on rare-earth inputs, according to official readouts and reporting.
- Multilateral cooperation featured in the talks, with Beijing supporting India’s hosting of the BRICS Summit and both sides indicating support for each other’s upcoming BRICS chairmanships, while China, per India’s readout, said it understands and respects India’s UNSC membership aspirations.
- Readouts underscored differing emphases: Beijing framed ties as a long-term partnership with “cooperative partners, not rivals,” while New Delhi focused on incremental stabilisation and concrete issue resolution.