New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday dismissed suggestions that India’s recent engagement with China was prompted by Washington’s trade actions, including tariff measures announced by US President Donald Trump.

Speaking at The Economic Times World Leaders Forum 2025, Jaishankar cautioned against oversimplifying complex ties between New Delhi and Beijing.

“What I want you to understand is it’s not black and white. It’s not that something has happened with America, so therefore, immediately, something has happened with China… There are different timelines of different lengths on different problems,” he said.

The minister stressed that India-China relations were part of a longer trajectory rather than knee-jerk responses to global developments.

“I think it would be a mistaken analysis to try and crunch everything and make it into an integrated response to a very specific situation… Today, of course, there is a global landscape… I want you to understand there is an evolution. There’s a flow of that relationship. There are other relationships, but don’t make this connection so tight. That’s not the reality,” Jaishankar added.

His comments came amid speculation that the US tariff escalation against both India and China was pushing the two Asian neighbours into closer dialogue.

Earlier this week, Chinese Foreign Minister and senior Communist Party leader Wang Yi visited India at the invitation of National Security Adviser Ajit Doval.

He co-chaired the 24th round of the Special Representatives’ Dialogue on the Boundary Question with Doval, held talks with Jaishankar, and met Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The exchanges precede Modi’s upcoming trip to China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit.

Jaishankar also hit out at Washington’s tariff hikes, which now exceed 50 per cent on Indian exports, after the Trump administration cited India’s purchases of Russian oil.

He described the measures as “unjustified and unreasonable” and emphasised that protecting Indian farmers and small producers was non-negotiable.

“What we are concerned about is that red lines are primarily the interest of our farmers and, to some extent, our small producers. So when people pronounce that we have succeeded or failed, we as a government are committed to defending the interests of our farmers and small producers. We are determined on that. That’s not something we can compromise,” Jaishankar asserted.

Pushing back against criticism of India’s energy purchases, he noted, “The same criticism levelled at India for purchasing Russian energy had not been applied to larger importers, such as China and European nations.”