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CHINA’S President Xi Jinping has underscored improving ties between China and India, describing the two Asian powers as “good neighbours, friends and partners” as he extended Republic Day greetings to Indian President Droupadi Murmu, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported on Monday.
In his message, Xi said on Monday that relations between Beijing and New Delhi had continued to improve and develop over the past year, stressing that closer ties were of “great significance for maintaining and promoting world peace and prosperity,” according to Xinhua.
Xi reiterated that China has always believed that being “good neighbours, friends and partners” is the correct path for both countries, portraying bilateral relations with the metaphor of the “dragon and the elephant dancing together.”
He said he hoped both sides would expand exchanges and cooperation while properly addressing each other’s concerns in order to promote healthy and stable relations between the two nations.
China and India, both nuclear-armed, share a roughly 3,800-kilometre border that remains poorly demarcated and has been disputed since the 1950s.
Relations deteriorated sharply after a deadly clash in the Himalayan region in 2020, when 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers were killed in hand-to-hand combat, prompting heavy militarisation along the frontier by both sides.
Bilateral ties have gradually improved since last year following a series of high-level visits, signalling efforts by both governments to stabilise relations.
As part of that thaw, direct flights between the two countries resumed in 2025, alongside an increase in trade and investment flows, against the backdrop of a more confrontational global environment shaped by the foreign policy of U.S. President Donald Trump. - January 26, 2026