Indian foreign minister Jaishankar says ‘not closed to business from China’

NEW DELHI: India is not “closed to business from China”, but the issue is in which sectors the country does business with Beijing and on what terms, foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said in Berlin on Tuesday (Sep 10).

Ties between the nuclear-armed Asian giants have been strained since clashes between their troops on their largely undemarcated Himalayan frontier left 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers dead in 2020.

India subsequently tightened its scrutiny of investments from Chinese companies and halted major projects.

However, government officials, including Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, have recently backed suggestions to allow more Chinese investment in the country.

The latest annual economic survey released in July suggests that to boost its global exports, India can either integrate into China’s supply chain or promote foreign direct investment (FDI) from China.

“We are not closed to business from China … I think the issue is, which sectors do you do business and what terms do you do business? It’s far more complicated than a black and white binary answer,” Jaishankar said at a conference in Berlin.

Reuters reported in July that India could ease restrictions on Chinese investment in non-sensitive sectors such as solar panels and battery manufacturing where New Delhi lacks expertise and which hinders domestic manufacturing.

Diplomatic and military talks to end the military standoff in the Himalayas have made slow progress.

Along with investments scrutiny, India has also virtually blocked visas for all Chinese nationals since 2020, but it is considering easing them for Chinese technicians, as it had hindered investments worth billions of dollars.