Lyle Goldstein
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent trip to China has rightly gotten the attention of many global strategists. Some in Washington seem especially concerned that Modi’s first trip to China since 2018 signals a potential rapprochement between New Delhi and Beijing, a development that could undermine many years of U.S. efforts to build up India as a counterweight to growing Chinese power in Asia.
Yet, it would be a major mistake to view this evident turnaround in China-India relations through a zero-sum lens (and thus as a problem for U.S. national security). American national interests will be well served if the two Asian giants can “bury the hatchet” on their decades-long border dispute, embrace compromise and return to more pragmatic bilateral relations.
For one, global trade and prosperity will be enhanced through much more extensive China-India trade linkages and, fundamentally, the world will not have to watch nervously as two nuclear-armed powers engage in regular, violent skirmishing. Most importantly, U.S. interests will be served by accepting the new multipolar world, including the distinct Chinese and Indian poles within that new global order.
China-India relations have never been warm in recent decades, but they became especially tense after a June 2020 skirmish in the Galwan Valley of the Himalayan mountains that forms the border between the two Asian giants. That incident was remarkable in two respects: first, there was a rather heavy loss of life on both sides, and second, because neither side resorted to the use of firearms.
That latter point reflects an admirable level of restraint, but New Delhi opted to take strenuous measures to curb India’s diplomatic and economic contacts with China after the conflict. Indeed, New Delhi went much further than Washington in placing draconian restrictions against Chinese companies in the Indian market. As if to rub salt in the wound, it was Chinese-made missiles and fighters that scored victories for the Pakistan Air Force against Indian fighters during the early summer 2025 fighting over Kashmir. Thus, New Delhi’s decision to pursue a more conciliatory line on China comes as somewhat of a surprise.
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