India and China are aware of the “very high political, economic and military cost of frozen relations,” he says. “China felt it had pushed India too close to the U.S. while India realized that it was losing its vaunted strategic autonomy by getting too close to Washington and turning Beijing into an adversary.”

India and China’s relationship is thawing as the U.S.’s ties with India chills under President Donald Trump. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is reportedly on a visit to New Delhi this week on his first trip to India in more than three years,