China has pledged to meet India’s rare earth demands as Asia’s two biggest rivals look to thaw out points of friction in the face of US President Donald Trump’s tariff crusade.
Beijing has promised to address three key Indian concerns — its need for fertilisers, rare earths and tunnel boring machines, a source with knowledge of the matter informed Reuters. The development was also reported by Indian newspaper The Economic Times.
Visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had assured his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar that China had lifted its export curbs on all three, the ET report said.
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Wang is visiting India for the 24th round of border talks with Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, days before Modi travels to China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit.
It was not immediately clear whether China had agreed to approve export licences faster or grant blanket exemptions for India. China has previously committed to speeding up export licences for Europe and the US without actually dismantling the control regime.
China’s exports of rare earths and related magnets jumped in June after these agreements and as its commerce ministry worked through a huge backlog of applications.
However, rare earth magnet exports to India were still down 58% compared to January levels, according to Chinese customs data. June is the last month for which country-level data is available.
India has the world’s fifth-largest rare earth reserves, at 6.9 million metric tons, but has no magnet production and relies on imported magnets, mainly from China.
‘Upward trend’ in ties
From talks on resuming direct flights to a series of high-level bilateral visits, longtime rivals China and India are quietly and cautiously strengthening ties against the backdrop of US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable approach to both.
Wang Yi’s ongoing visit to Delhi for talks with Doval on their disputed Himalayan border is the second such meeting since a deadly clash between Indian and Chinese troops in June 2020. Meanwhile, India’s Modi is set to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping at the end of the month when he travels to China – his first visit in seven years.
The engagements mark a thaw in India and China’s five-year standoff after an agreement last October on patrolling their Himalayan border, which eased the strain on bilateral ties that had hurt trade, investment and air travel.
“There has been an upward trend. Borders have been quiet. There has been peace and tranquillity,” Doval told Wang as he opened the talks. “Our bilateral engagements have been more substantial.”
“The new environment that has been created has helped us in moving ahead in the various areas that we are working on,” he said.
Wang told Doval that “the stable and healthy development of China-India relations is in the fundamental interests of the two countries’ people,” according to a readout of the meeting released by China’s foreign ministry.
The two sides “should enhance mutual trust through dialogues and expand cooperation,” Wang said, and should aim for consensus in areas such as border control and demarcation negotiations.
Meanwhile, after meeting Wang on Tuesday, India’s Modi shared an image on social media of the two shaking hands. “Since my meeting with President Xi in Kazan last year, India-China relations have made steady progress guided by respect for each other’s interests and sensitivities,” he said in the post.
“Stable, predictable, constructive ties between India and China will contribute significantly to regional as well as global peace and prosperity,” he added.
- Reuters, with additional editing and inputs from Vishakha Saxena
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