Congress accuses China of leveraging Indo-U.S. rift to pressure India

The Congress on Friday (August 29, 2025) alleged that India is being “forced” to normalise its relations with China, which is “trying to take advantage of the downturn in Indo-U.S. ties”.

The Opposition party’s remarks come in the midst of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Japan, ahead of his scheduled travel to China to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin on August 31 and September 1. Mr. Modi is in Japan on August 29–30 and arrived in Tokyo on Friday morning.

“The Frequently Flying [and more frequently lying] Prime Minister is off to Japan and China. His visit to China is a moment of some reckoning for India. We are being forced to normalise relations with China - largely on their terms, with China trying to take advantage of the downturn in Indo-U.S. ties as well,” Congress general secretary (communication) Jairam Ramesh said in a post on social media platform X.

“China’s jugalbandi with Pakistan during Operation Sindoor - revealed by our own military establishment itself - has been forgotten,” he added.

The Congress leader said the Prime Minister’s statement of June 19, 2020, denying that anyone had entered Indian borders, while referring to the border conflict with China - had weakened India’s negotiating strength.

“It left India with little room to manoeuvre and this visit, despite the failure to restore the pre-April 2020 status quo, is the inevitable result of that ‘notorious and cowardly’ clean chit,” Mr. Ramesh claimed.

The party also took a swipe at the Prime Minister, saying the “long-suffering” people of Manipur were still awaiting his visit, but he had “simply washed his hands off” the State.