Author: Manoj Kewalramani
Published: 7 January 2026
ISEAS Perspective 2026/1
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Tianjin for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit has promoted new discussions on the direction of India-China ties. The meeting concluded with both sides stating that they should view each other as “partners and not rivals” and as development opportunities and not threats. Regardless, the optics and rhetoric of engagement have done little to alleviate the underlying fault lines between the two countries. This paper argues that the structural dynamics between India and China indicate that competition and tension will remain the dominant themes, and the quest for a new equilibrium will be long, slow, tense and fraught with friction.
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