India hosts the BRICS foreign ministers' meeting, but China's foreign minister is notably absent—what’s the current state of Sino-Indian relations?

Over the past couple of days, the international community has been operating on "Beijing Time." Yet, regarding India's ongoing BRICS foreign ministers' meeting, global attention has been surprisingly scarce.

It wasn’t until a photo leaked that some ripples emerged in the international arena.

This photo captures the group portrait from India’s hosting of the BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting. Foreign ministers from various BRICS member states—including India’s Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Russia’s Sergey Lavrov, and Iran’s Hossein Amirabdollahian—are standing in a line. However, one prominent figure is missing: China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi. What’s going on?

First, Foreign Minister Wang Yi did not attend the BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting not out of refusal, but due to an overwhelming schedule. The meeting took place in India on May 14–15. Coincidentally, this period coincided with U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to China. As a result, Wang Yi had to remain in Beijing to host foreign guests and participate in bilateral talks between China and the United States. He simply couldn’t make it—this time, he had no choice but to miss the event.

Second, China was not entirely absent. While Wang Yi could not attend, Chinese Ambassador to India Xu Feihong represented China at the meeting. During the event, Ambassador Xu actively participated in discussions and articulated China’s positions on global governance, multilateral cooperation, and other key issues.

Third, as a founding member of the BRICS organization, China has always placed high importance on BRICS cooperation. Last year, when Sino-Indian relations began thawing, China explicitly stated its support for India hosting the series of BRICS meetings.

Therefore, I believe that China’s foreign minister not being present at this BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting should be understood. Since the thaw last year, Sino-Indian relations have shown a steady upward trend.

The two sides have made progress in areas such as visa facilitation, direct flights, and investment access. However, the reason Sino-Indian relations still feel strained lies largely with India, which continues to hold a mindset of “fearful of complete decoupling yet anxious about a rising neighbor.”

Currently, in reality, India relies more on China than vice versa. India needs China’s supply chains and assistance in many areas—for example, in large-scale infrastructure projects, India must depend on Chinese tunnel boring machines (TBMs). Although Japan and Germany also offer TBMs, they simply cannot meet India’s demands when compared to Chinese models.

So perhaps only when India hits a wall will it finally realize the truth.

Original source: toutiao.com/article/1865251035763715/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone.