India, China look to be partners amid US tariff turmoil

This summer, as U.S. tariffs scrambled shipping schedules, Chinese ports in Shanghai, Ningbo, and Qingdao reported days-long logjams. The disruptions forced exporters and shipping lines to explore alternative hubs across Asia – where India is increasingly being noticed.

With a coastline of over 7,500 kilometers (nearly 4,700 miles) and 12 major ports already handling most of its trade, the country is well poised to be an alternative gateway to Asia. Between 2014 and 2024, India nearly doubled its cargo-handling capacity at major ports from 872 million tonnes to 1,630 million, and Delhi is moving swiftly to further expand and modernize its port infrastructure.

Experts note India is not attempting to replace China, but complementing it in global trade. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit on Sept. 1, he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping stressed that they are “partners, not rivals,” pledging to work together on resolving border disputes and stabilizing the global economy.

This came as U.S. President Donald Trump imposed 50% tariffs on Indian exports, marking a downturn in bilateral relations. Xu Feihong, China’s envoy to India, said recently that as “the two biggest and very important emerging economies,” China and India should find ways to cooperate. International trade partners, he said, “should complement each other and lead to mutually beneficial win-win cooperation.”

Those words could signal a new chapter in a fraught history. India and China have clashed over their shared Himalayan border, most recently in 2020. They had begun mending their relationship before U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term, but experts say the recent meeting in China is a sign they see value in cultivating a stable relationship as Mr. Trump upends trade relationships with tariffs. At the same time, Mr. Modi is pushing to increase India’s manufacturing and its exports, which experts see as a response to both the unpredictability of its relationship with the United States, and to China’s increasing influence in the Indian Ocean.

Professor Biswajit Dhar, who taught economics at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi before serving in several ministries, says this growing distance from the US – the world’s largest economy – is a major loss for Indian businesses, and could hinder its maritime ambitions. But viewing China as a partner, rather than a competitor, could help.

“The ongoing reset in India’s relationship with its northern neighbor would surely see a spurt in trade activities,” he says. “India must seize this opportunity to improve its presence in the Chinese economy.”

Suo Takekuma/AP

Russian President Vladimir Putin (from left), Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Chinese leader Xi Jinping talk at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Tianjin, China, Sept. 1, 2025.

What India is doing and where it lags

To be sure, India is far from matching China’s port traffic. India’s total cargo throughput last year was about one-tenth that of its northern neighbor. But it’s aggressively positioning itself as a viable trade hub.

In 2024 alone, Indian ports managed 819 million tonnes of cargo, a 4.45% year-over-year rise. Merchandise exports climbed from $417 billion in 2022 to $451 billion in 2023, reflecting India’s growing trade weight. But the momentum has begun to stall as the fresh U.S. tariffs are already cutting into export orders and slowing cargo movement through India’s ports.

More than a trade hiccup, this exposes a deeper fault line in New Delhi’s strategy – its ambition to project itself as a global economic leader now. For India, the challenge is no longer just expanding trade but sustaining it in a world defined by geopolitical friction and unpredictable economic pressures.

This year, India took a significant step to modernize the country’s maritime laws by replacing the outdated Indian Ports Act of 1908 with The Indian Ports Bill, 2025. It establishes the Maritime State Development Council and State Maritime Boards to improve coordination and management, and mandates better environmental and safety standards, aiming to make India a global maritime leader.

“Global trade needs multiple options,” says Professor Nisha Taneja at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) in New Delhi. “The current trade routes are getting congested. There is definitely a need to develop more routes to facilitate global trade, and in that sense, India’s infrastructure expansion is very timely.”

This is all part of a broader plan to boost India’s trade ecosystem, say experts.

“The vision — increasing manufacturing, reducing vulnerabilities, and expanding exports — is clear,” says Ms. Taneja. “But implementation is slow.”

Financing projects — such as integration of ports, roads, and railways — is a big challenge, she explains, and so is bureaucracy. India’s foreign trade policy does not have a coordinated approach that looks beyond ports and engages different sectors.

“A coherent trade policy must integrate the planning and priorities of multiple ministries — roads, railways, agriculture, and others — especially given how import-dependent our industries are,” says professor Dhar. “Our manufacturing hubs are scattered across the country, which makes connectivity to ports critical.”

Getting a product from a factory in West Bengal to Mumbai, for example, is a logistical marathon, with challenges that begin with navigating congested local roads to reach an inland container depot, where complex paperwork and red tape can cause further delays.

Rajanish Kakade/AP/File

Containers are piled up at a terminal at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai, India, June 2017.

“Megaports” key to India’s vision

Nevertheless, Delhi is plowing ahead with Mr. Modi’s “Maritime India Vision 2030,” which includes the development of three megaports in India.

One of them is Mumbai’s Jawaharlal Nehru Port, which is India’s busiest container hub, handling over half the nation’s containerized cargo. It recorded 24.2 million tonnes of total cargo between April and June 2025 – a 10% rise compared to last year.

Unmesh Sharad Wagh, chairman of the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority in Mumbai, has faith in the vision.

“The development of a mega port at JNP will be transformative with direct highway access and upcoming linkage to the Dedicated Freight Corridor from Delhi,” he says. The port will soon handle bigger types of ships, which will increase capacity and cut shipping costs by at least 30%. “This integration of port, road, and rail will redefine JNP’s role as a logistics hub, making it faster, greener, and more cost-efficient.”

On Sept. 4, Mr. Modi announced an agreement with Singapore on a joint project to double the capacity of a terminal at Jawaharlal Nehru Port.

“India is working at great speed to strengthen its port infrastructure, and Singapore’s expertise in this field is of immense value,” Mr. Modi said. “This milestone will further enhance our container-handling capacity.”