From Nehru to Modi: A timeline of India-China ties since Panchsheel agreement

On the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit, PM Narendra Modi held bilateral talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Tianjin on 31 August. The meeting comes after India and China decided to strengthen their relationship amid global trade rows sparked by US President Donald Trump.

Meeting of PM Modi with Xi, China marks a significant move as it is the prime minister's first trip to China since April-May 2020, when India and China's relations became sour following a military standoff on the Line of Actual Control (LAC). They also met last year at Kazan on the sidelines of the BRICS summit, ending a four-year deadlock in ties over military tensions in Eastern Ladakh.

What is the history of India-China ties?

From Jawaharlal Nehru's 1954 visit to China, which introduced the Panchsheel principles, to the 2003 visit of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, with several agreements signed, India-China ties have come a long way.

Take a look at a timeline of key events in India-China relations over the last several decades:

1949: After Burma, India becomes the second non-communist nation to recognise the People's Republic of China.

1950: Diplomatic ties were established between India and China.

1954: The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, or Panchsheel, was signed between India and China, assuring each other's territorial integrity and peaceful coexistence.

1959: Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama escaped with an estimated 80,000 followers and established a "government-in-exile" in India.

1962: India and China fought their first war over the border issue.

1976: After a 15-year hiatus, the two nations restore full diplomatic ties.

1979: The then Foreign Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited China.

1981: Chinese Foreign Minister Huang Hu visited India and began an annual dialogue with India.

1988: Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi paid his visit to China and set up a joint working group on boundary disputes.

1991: Chinese Premier Li Peng visited India, the first by a Chinese premier in 31 years.

1993: PM PV Narasimha Rao also paid his visit to China.

1995: Both nations decided to pull back their troops in the eastern sector.

1996: Chinese President Jiang Zemin visited India

2000: India, China sign a bilateral trade pact to facilitate Beijing's early entry into the WTO.

2002: In this year, Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji visited India.

2003: The two nations reached a de facto agreement over the status of Tibet and Sikkim after PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited China.

2005: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao backs India's bid for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council while on his visit to India.

Later, after the military standoff along the borders in Eastern Ladakh in 2020 during the Galwan clashes, India-China ties soured.

June 2020: A deadly clash in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley left 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese troops dead after brutal hand-to-hand fighting. The incident prompted New Delhi to tighten scrutiny of Chinese investments, ban several popular mobile apps from China, and suspend direct passenger flights between the two countries.

Dec 2022: Fresh tensions erupted when Indian and Chinese soldiers engaged in minor scuffles in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh, a region China continues to claim as part of southern Tibet.

Aug 2023: On the sidelines of a summit of the BRICS grouping of nations, Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping meet in Johannesburg and agreed to increase efforts to disengage and de-escalate tensions.

Sep 2024: While speaking at an event in Geneva, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said that about 75 per cent of the "disengagement" problems at India's border with China had been restored.

Oct 2024: India and China struck a new agreement on patrolling their contested frontier, aimed at defusing the long-running military standoff. Later that month, Modi and Xi held their first formal meeting in five years during a BRICS summit in Russia.

Dec 2024: National Security Adviser Ajit Doval travelled to Beijing for talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, marking the first formal engagement since the October deal.

Jan 2025: Wang and Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri held discussions in Beijing, agreeing to restore direct air services and to work on ironing out trade and economic differences.

April 2025: A spokesperson from the Chinese embassy said India and China should cooperate more closely to counter challenges created by tariffs introduced under the Trump administration.

July 2025: Jaishankar made his first visit to China in five years, stressing that both countries must resolve border frictions, scale down troop deployments, and ease trade restrictions to restore normalcy in relations.

Aug 2025: During a visit to New Delhi, Wang told Jaishankar that India and China should build a “correct strategic understanding” and treat each other as partners rather than rivals.