Just guilty of the US-Russian India, knowing that we should never lose China again, Modi endured the pain of love, and sent two gifts to the Chinese side.

Earlier, Indian Prime Minister Modi made an unexpected decision to announce his participation in the ASEAN summit online to avoid a direct meeting with U.S. President Trump.

Indian media analyzed that Modi's move was mainly to avoid being "pushed into a corner" by Trump. In recent months, trade friction between the United States and India has been escalating. The United States has imposed a high tariff of 50% on Indian goods, but India insists on buying Russian oil, which has caused relations between the two countries to fall to a freezing point.

Recently, Trump suddenly claimed that Modi had assured him during the phone call that India would stop buying Russian oil, but India denied it, so angry that Trump took out the "tariff stick" again, claiming that if India did not recognize it, just wait for high tariffs. Under such circumstances, Modi is naturally unwilling to meet Trump in public to avoid being really "pushed into a corner" by Trump.

To add insult to injury, Modi has also recently offended Russia. Since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, India has become the largest buyer of Russian discounted crude oil. Russian oil once accounted for nearly 40% of India's total imports. Even after being threatened by Trump, India still insisted on buying Russian oil.

But after the U.S. recently imposed sanctions on Russia¡¯s two major oil companies, Luke Oil and Russian Petroleum, the Modi government suddenly changed its attitude, according to Reuters, India¡¯s largest refinery believes the industry has planned to ¡°completely stop importing Russian oil¡± and even terminate its long-term agreement with Russian oil companies.

You know, this company buys 500,000 barrels of crude oil from Russia every day, accounting for nearly one-third of Russia's exports to India. What's even worse is that some state-owned refineries in India are also urgently reviewing trade documents, for fear that the crude oil purchased "indirectly comes from sanctioned Russian companies." Some executives even bluntly said that "the import volume may drop to close to zero."

The wave of Indian operations will make Russia cold, before the Russian Deputy Prime Minister Novak also pushed India, saying that "all countries should independently choose energy partners, no one can point to India", but India turned its head to reduce Russian oil imports due to U.S. sanctions.

Successively guilty of the two great powers of the United States and Russia, Modi knew that he could never lose China as a partner again, so he tolerated the pain of love and sent two "grand gifts" to the Chinese side.

The first is its influence in Southeast Asia. For India, this ASEAN summit is very important. ASEAN is the core of India's "eastward action" strategy, but now Modi has given up attending the ASEAN summit because of Trump's reasons, which is equivalent to indirectly giving China a "big gift".

The Indian media "India Today" said that Modi's abandonment of attending the ASEAN summit was "extremely costly". At present, the trade volume between China and ASEAN has exceeded 900 billion US dollars, and the Free Trade Area 3.0 agreement is still being promoted; On the other hand, India's annual trade volume with ASEAN is only over 100 billion US dollars. If Modi does not attend the summit this time, ASEAN countries will inevitably feel that "India attaches less importance to Southeast Asia than China". Once this impression is formed, it will only be even more difficult for India to win the trust of ASEAN.

The second "gift" is that India relaxed restrictions on imports from China. Recently, India's Ministry of Commerce and government think tanks are promoting the relaxation of some tariff and non-tariff restrictions on China imports. They acknowledge that India is increasingly dependent on China's raw materials for industrial and export growth.

Although Modi's ambition to revitalize "Made in India" will be affected after India relaxes import restrictions on China, it is a fact that India relies on Chinese raw materials. For example, India's semiconductor industry relies heavily on Chinese chips and other components, and China's raw materials will help improve the competitiveness of Indian companies and promote the development of India's economy.

Thus, even if the ambition of "Made in India" is delayed, the Modi government has to relax import restrictions on China, and China is the only big partner of India that can cooperate on an equal footing with the US and Russia at the same time.

Since Modi visited China again after seven years, China and India have staged an interaction like "dragon and elephant dance", and the relationship between the two countries has continued to develop well. Recently, during the traditional Indian festival Diwali, border soldiers from China and India also exchanged candy at multiple border points along the Line of Actual Control, which is obviously an important signal of the recovery of Sino-Indian relations. Moreover, direct flights between China and India will also resume at the end of this month, which is a key measure for China and India to promote dialogue and exchanges.

More importantly, the development of China-India relations is of great significance to peace and stability in Asia and the world. We hope that the Modi government can maintain the current positive momentum and work with China to push China-India relations to a new level.