The wheel, it would seem, has turned full circle. Prime Minister Narendra Modi attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin this week struck a friendly chord with China’s Xi Jinping, presumably signifying an end to a four-year-long standoff between the two Asian neighbours. The tone and tenor of the engagement between the two leaders signified both sides are eager to restore the strained ties, which were ruptured principally by the Chinese PLA’s unconventional offensive against India to usurp land in Galwan Valley, eastern Ladakh. Xi’s stress was that, “Being the world’s two most populous nations and part of the Global South, it’s vital to be friends, a good neighbour, and the Dragon (China) and the Elephant (India) come together.” Modi’s take was equally affirmative – that, “Maintenance of peace and tranquility at the border is like an insurance policy for India-China ties. Predictably, the PM also stressed that India and China should join hands to fight cross-border terrorism by Islamists, of which both the nations are “victims”.
Notably, both India and Pakistan are part of the 10-member SCO along with Russia and some other Euro-Asian nations. The SCO summit took place this time in the backdrop of the US tariff war on India as also China and several other nations. China managed to browbeat President Trump and extracted concessions, while India is caught in an unenviable situation. Significantly, Xi attempted to hold out an olive branch to India at this precise hour. The Chinese leader lost no time in sending a confidential note to Prime Minister Modi, stressing China’s keenness to mend its ties with India. Having been rubbished by Trump, Modi seemed to be in a mood to “forget the past” and break bread with Xi. Diplomacy, despite its soft exterior, is a hard-edged game. All options need be explored at any given time, with an eye on the future.
Notably, in the US itself, opinion is divided on Trump’s tariff offensive against nations like India. Trump’s steps have landed him in legal trouble too. He seems to have an axe to grind against India for strange reasons. The relations between India and the US had turned cordial since the 1990s when Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister made some significant steps to court the US. America’s strong ties with Pakistan however proved to be an obstacle to surmount then and even now. Yet, the US showed a willingness to cultivate India with the obvious purpose of reining in China in the geopolitical region. This, in turn, ruffled China’s feathers. China is an untrustworthy neighbour, which repeatedly let down India ever since the time of Jawaharlal Nehru, leading to a full-scale war and annexation of large swathes of Indian land along the Himalayas. China keeps being on the offensive along the northern border. It holds a brief for Pakistan if only to spite India. It keeps playing dangerous games. A good word from Xi Jinping must, therefore, be taken with a pinch of salt.
