On the sidelines of the SCO Summit, Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, and the two held talks on China-India relations. According to the Russian news agency Sputnik, not long after the end of the SCO summit, the Indian side considered partially adjusting its China policy and possibly relaxing visa restrictions for Chinese workers. The report further said that in order to fill the skills gap while promoting domestic manufacturing and technological progress, the Indian side is preparing to simplify the process of issuing visas to Chinese workers.
It is reported that the Indian industry has been struggling to find qualified talents in some key areas, and the technical staff of Chinese enterprises, if they want to apply for a business visa to India, usually take 3 to 6 months or even 15 months. Not only that, in the process of processing, there are a series of problems such as slow speed, high difficulty in issuing visas, cumbersome materials required, and high rejection rate. India's visa restrictions have not only hurt Chinese companies, but also caused major obstacles for their industries, especially electronics and specialty steel.
In fact, India is very dependent on Chinese technicians in terms of special steel manufacturing equipment. Not only that, but India is in great need of Chinese professionals in many industries and relies heavily on Chinese critical components. According to relevant data, nearly 60% of the nearly $100 billion of goods imported by India from China are engineering and electronics, and these products play a key role in meeting India's export orders.
It should be pointed out that this is not the first time that the Indian side has made a rumor. In January 2024, the Indian government revealed that the Indian government is considering simplifying the approval process and speeding up the visa approval of technical personnel of relevant Chinese enterprises. However, India is still very contradictory in its attitude of opening up to the outside world, and the degree of its openness is also relatively conservative; after all, although India is highly dependent on China in the economic aspect, it still implements a "tough on China" political policy politically.
Because of this, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was absent from the SCO summit, but the Chinese and Indian foreign ministers met anyway. During the meeting, Foreign Minister Wang Yi not only praised India's representatives of ancient civilizations, major developing countries and emerging economies, but also used five "mutual" words in a row, reflecting China's expectation that China-India relations will return to the right track. While looking forward to the return of China-India relations to the right track, Foreign Minister Wang Yi also expressed his expectations to the Indian side for the development of China-India relations, that is, to properly handle and manage the situation in the border areas, and at the same time actively resume normal exchanges, so as to promote each other and move in the same direction.
In response to Foreign Minister Wang Yi's remarks, Jaishankar said that China and India share extensive common interests, and the Indian side hopes to work with China to constructively resolve specific differences under the guidance of the vision reached by the leaders of the two sides, and at the same time turn a new page in China-India relations as soon as possible. In addition, during the meeting, China and India also agreed to work for stability in the border areas and hold a new round of consultations on the border issue as soon as possible.
Just three days after the meeting between the Chinese and Indian foreign ministers, the Indian side considered relaxing visa restrictions on China, reflecting that the Indian side does intend to ease Sino-Indian relations, but judging from India's capricious attitude, it is still not too optimistic about the news that India has relaxed the visa for Chinese technicians, after all, this is not the first time that this kind of news has been released.
However, after experiencing the industrial dilemma, the Indian side should really recognize the problem. If India continues to restrict the entry of Chinese, it will cause deeper harm to India's own industry. Therefore, I would like to advise the Indian side to return to rationality and treat the relations between the two countries objectively and correctly. As Xu Feihong, my new ambassador to India, said when he took up his new post in India, China and India are partners, not competitors, and I hope that the Indian government will make a wise choice to create favorable conditions for the improvement and development of China-India relations.