The past year has witnessed a notable thaw in relations between Eurasia’s two largest powers—China and India.

The process symbolically began with Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi’s meeting at the BRICS Summit in Kazan in October 2024—their first in five years—and gathered further momentum when the Indian Prime Minister attended the SCO Summit in Tianjin in August 2025. That gathering occurred mere days after Washington imposed 50% tariffs on select Indian imports, a move many observers interpreted as an additional catalyst for rapprochement between New Delhi and Beijing.

However, the obstacles to genuine trust between India and China are deeply structural and cannot be dismantled overnight. Still, even a gradual build-up of confidence between the two Asian giants would carry profound implications for the broader international order, most notably by unlocking new possibilities for both #BRICS and the SCO, writes Valdai Club Programme Director Anton Bespalov.

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