��������

NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet with China’s top diplomat on Tuesday in a sign of easing tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors after a yearslong standoff between the Asian powers.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who arrived in India on Monday, is scheduled to hold talks with Modi and other leaders, including National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, about the disputed border in the Himalayan mountains. Reducing the number of troops on the border, and resuming some trade there, is expected to be on the agenda.
The rebuilding of ties coincides with friction between New Delhi and Washington after US President Donald Trump imposed steep tariffs on India, a longtime ally seen as a counterbalance against China’s influence in Asia. India is part of the Quad security alliance with the US along with Australia and Japan.
‘Compromise at the highest political level’
India and China’s decades-old border dispute worsened in 2020 after a deadly clash between their troops in the Ladakh region. The chill in relations affected trade, diplomacy and air travel as both sides deployed tens of thousands of security forces in border areas.
Some progress has been made since then.
Last year, India and China agreed to a pact on border patrols and withdrew additional forces along some border areas. Both countries continue to fortify their border by building roads and rail networks.
In recent months, the countries have increased official visits and discussed easing some trade restrictions, movement of citizens and visas for businesspeople. In June, Beijing allowed pilgrims from India to visit holy sites in Tibet. Both sides are working to restore direct flights.
Last week, the spokesman for India’s foreign ministry, Randhir Jaiswal, said India and China were in discussions to restart trade through three points along their 3,488-kilometer (2,167-mile) border.
Manoj Joshi, a fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, a New Delhi-based think tank, said relations are still at an uneasy level of normalization.
“Settling the boundary issue between the two countries requires political compromise at the highest political level,” said Joshi, who also served as a member of the advisory board for India’s National Security Council. He asserted that the countries are “still talking past each other when it comes to the border dispute and issues surrounding it.”
On Monday, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Beijing is willing to take Wang’s India visit as an opportunity to work with the Indian side to “properly handle differences and promote the sustained, sound and stable development of China-India relations.”
Mao said Wang’s meeting with Modi’s national security adviser will “continue in-depth communication to jointly safeguard peace and tranquility in the border areas.”
Modi plans to visit China soon
The thaw between Beijing and New Delhi began last October when Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met at a summit of emerging economies in Russia. It was the first time the leaders had spoken in person since 2019.
Modi is set to meet Xi when he travels to China late this month – his first visit in seven years – to attend the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a regional grouping formed by China, Russia and others to counter US influence in Asia.
Earlier this year, Xi called for India and China’s relations to take the form of a “dragon-elephant tango” – a dance between the emblematic animals of the countries.
Last month, India’s external affairs minister visited Beijing in his first trip to China since 2020.
The US and Pakistan play roles in the thaw
The renewed engagement comes as New Delhi’s ties with Trump are fraying. Washington has imposed a 50 percent tariff on Indian goods, which includes a penalty of 25 percent for purchasing Russian crude oil. The tariffs take effect Aug. 27.
India has shown no sign of backing down, instead signing more agreements with Russia to deepen economic cooperation.
Trump’s renewed engagement with India’s archrival, Pakistan, has also encouraged New Delhi’s overtures to China, said Lt. Gen. D.S. Hooda, who led Indian military’s Northern Command from 2014 to 2016.
In June, Trump hosted Pakistan’s army chief for a White House lunch and later announced an energy deal with Islamabad to jointly develop the country’s oil reserves. Both followed Trump’s claims of brokering a ceasefire between India and Pakistan after the two sides traded military strikes in May.
That clash saw Pakistan use Chinese-made military jets and missiles against India.
“China is heavily invested in Pakistan and, practically speaking, you can’t have any expectation that Beijing will hold back support to Islamabad,” Hooda said. “But you can’t have two hostile neighbors on your borders and simultaneously deal with them also.”

LIMASSOL: After setting off from Cyprus, a ship loaded with 1,200 tons of food supplies for the Gaza Strip was approaching the Israeli port of Ashdod on Tuesday in a renewed effort to alleviate the worsening crisis as famine threatens the Palestinian territory.
The Panamanian-flagged vessel is loaded with 52 containers carrying food aid such as pasta, rice, baby food and canned goods. Israeli customs officials had screened the aid at the Cypriot port of Limassol from where the ship departed on Monday.
Some 700 tons of the aid is from Cyprus, purchased with money donated by the United Arab Emirates to the so-called Amalthea Fund, set up last year for donors to help with seaborne aid. The rest comes from Italy, the Maltese government, a Catholic religious order in Malta and the Kuwaiti nongovernmental organization Al Salam Association.
“The situation is beyond dire,” Cyprus Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos told The Associated Press.
Cyprus was the staging area last year for 22,000 tons of aid deliveries by ship directly to Gaza through a pier operated by the international charity World Central Kitchen and a US military-run docking facility known as the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore system.
By late July 2024, aid groups pulled out of the project, ending a mission plagued by repeated weather and security problems that limited how much food and other emergency supplies could get to those in need.
Cypriot Foreign Ministry said Tuesday’s mission is led by the United Nations but is a coordinated effort — once offloaded at Ashdod, UN aid employees would arrange for the aid to be trucked to storage areas and food stations operated by the World Central Kitchen.
The charity, which was behind the first aid shipment to Gaza from Cyprus last year aboard a tug-towed barge, is widely trusted in the battered territory.
“The contribution of everyone involved is crucial and their commitment incredible,” Kombos said.
Shipborne deliveries can bring much larger quantities of aid than the air drops that several nations have recently made in Gaza.
The latest shipment comes a day after Hamas said it has accepted a new proposal from Arab mediators for a ceasefire. Israel has not approved the latest proposal so far.
Israel announced plans to reoccupy Gaza City and other heavily populated areas after ceasefire talks stalled last month, raising the possibility of a worsening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, which experts say is sliding into famine.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin has dismissed reports of starvation in Gaza are “lies” promoted by Hamas. But the UN last week warned that starvation and malnutrition in the Palestinian territory are at their highest levels since since the war began. 
Gaza’s Health Ministry said the Palestinian death toll from from 22 months of war has passed 62,000.