DELHI: Vikas, a shop owner in Delhi, likes doing business with China because the Chinese are cost-effective, offer product variety and get their goods to buyers quickly.

“For example, if you want 10,000 pieces of one item, you can get (them) in, I’d say, 10 days,” said Vikas, who sells incense, ornaments and other decorative ware.

Language is becoming less of a barrier because “they’re starting to speak good English”, he added. “Nature-wise, they’re good people.”

Businesses such as Vikas’ helped trade between the two countries hit a high of US$125 billion (S$171.5 billion) last year. But his goodwill towards China may not currently be shared at the highest levels of government.

India-China relations have been fraught with tension since mid-2020, when their troops clashed in Galwan Valley in Ladakh. Both claimed incursions by the other side, in disputed border territory.

At least 20 Indian soldiers were killed in June 2020, while China reportedly lost four soldiers. The fatalities were the first at the 3,440km border, called the Line of Actual Control, in 45 years.

Since then, both countries have reportedly amassed close to 60,000 troops each at the border.

In March, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi made a surprise trip to Delhi seeking normal ties. According to Indian media, his trip was also to gauge whether India would attend the BRICS summit China will be hosting this month.

Wang said: “The two sides should... put the differences over the boundary issue in an appropriate position in bilateral relations and adhere to the correct development direction of bilateral relations.”

But Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said ties could not be normal with the build-up of troops at the border. “The frictions and tensions that arise from China’s deployments since April 2020 cannot be reconciled with a normal relationship between two neighbours,” he said.

This tension is not, however, simply between two Asian giants laying claim to each other’s territory. The programme When Titans Clash explores the wider geopolitical dynamics at play, such as the rivalry between the United States and China.

“There’s a cold war that’s created between India and China. India is now a part of the Western alliance, and we’re seeing that India is the principal bulwark against China,” said Rohan Gunaratna, the director general of the Institute of National Security Studies in Sri Lanka.