NEW DELHI: India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar emphasized on Tuesday that while India remains open to business with China, the challenge is in deciding which sectors to engage with and under what conditions.
Tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors have been high since the deadly clash in Galwan in 2020, prompting India to increase scrutiny of Chinese investments and suspend significant projects.
Despite this, government officials, including Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, have recently shown openness to considering more Chinese investment.
A recent annual economic survey from July suggests that India could either integrate into China’s supply chains or encourage foreign direct investment (FDI) from China to enhance its global export capacity.
“We are not closed to business from China,” Jaishankar remarked during a conference in Berlin. “The real question is which sectors and under what conditions we do business. It’s not a straightforward yes or no.”
As reported by Reuters, India may potentially relax restrictions on Chinese investments in non-sensitive sectors like solar panel and battery manufacturing, areas where India currently lacks expertise and faces domestic production challenges.
Since 2020, India has effectively halted visas for Chinese nationals and imposed stricter scrutiny on investments. However, there are considerations to ease visa restrictions for Chinese technicians, recognizing the impact on projects worth billions of dollars.
