China promises rare earth support to India as neighbours rebuild ties
There is an upward trend in India-China relations and Beijing has promised to address New Delhi’s needs on rare earths, Reuters news agency reported on Tuesday, citing a top Indian official and a source.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is visiting India for the 24th round of border talks with Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and is also due to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, days before Modi travels to China for the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
“There has been an upward trend. Borders have been quiet. There has been peace and tranquillity,” Doval told Wang as he opened the talks. “Our bilateral engagements have been more substantial.”
“The new environment that has been created has helped us in moving ahead in the various areas that we are working on,” he said.
Wang said the setbacks the two countries experienced over the past few years were not in the interests of the people of the two countries, according to a translation of his remarks by Indian news agency ANI.
Earlier on Tuesday, an Indian source said that China had promised to address three key Indian concerns. Wang, the source said, had assured Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar that Beijing is addressing India’s need for fertilisers, rare earths and tunnel boring machines.
In this regard, local Indian media reported that China has lifted curbs on the export of rare earth magnets to India.
India has the world’s fifth-largest rare earth reserves, at 6.9 million metric tons, but there is no domestic magnet production. Therefore, India relies on imported magnets, mainly from China.
