- Wednesday, April 23, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE border confrontation between India and China over the past several months has left a major milestone achieved in their relation less discussed. The bilateral trade between the two Asian powers crossed a landmark figure of $100 billion (£75 billion) but the achievement did not generate fanfare in either New Delhi or Beijing due to their military standoff in Ladakh, Press Trust of India reported.
The trade, which stood at a modest $1.83 billion (£1.3 billion) in 2001, crossed the $100 billion mark in the first 11 months of 2021, marking a key milestone for which the two nations carried out campaigns to boost trade and build it as a major stakeholder to improve their relations that have otherwise remained frosty over the festering boundary dispute and strategic rivalry.
As per November’s data from China’s General Administration of Customs, the India-China bilateral trade stood at $114.63 billion (£85.5 billion), up to 46.4 per cent year-on-year from January to November 2021.
India’s exports to China reached $26.35 billion (£19.6 billion), up 38.5 per cent year-on-year while its imports from China reached $87.90 billion (£65.6 billion), up 49 per cent, the PTI report added.
However, the trade deficit in the 11 months, which is one of India’s major concerns throughout, stood at $61.54 billion (£45.9 billion), up 53.49 per cent year-on-year.
The landmark record did not witness any fanfare due to the lingering military standoff in eastern Ladakh.
The border standoff between the Indian and Chinese military erupted in May last year following a violent clash in the Pangong Lake area in Ladakh and both sides enhanced their deployment gradually by rushing in more troops and heavy weaponry.
The Ladakh standoff completely stalled all relations between India and China except trade.
India’s external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said during a panel discussion in Singapore in November that India and China are going through a “particularly bad patch” in their ties as Beijing has taken a set of actions in violation of agreements for which it still doesn’t have a “credible explanation”.
“We are going through a particularly bad patch in our relationship because they have taken a set of actions in violation of agreements for which they still don’t have a credible explanation and that indicates some rethink about where they want to take our relationship, but that’s for them to answer,” he said, in an apparent reference to the Ladakh border standoff.
Also, former Indian ambassador to China Vikram Misri, who in his virtual farewell call on Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi on December 6 said challenges had overpowered vast opportunities in Sino-India ties.
