Forced Concessions

In Tianjin, Modi again succumbed to Beijing's preferred terms/Politics

- SUSHANT SINGH

A viral video clip shows Prime Minister Narendra Modi clasping the hands of the Russian president Vladimir Putin and the Chinese president Xi Jinping, during his first visit to China in seven years. The three leaders were interacting at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting in Tianjin. Putin seemingly referred to the trio as “We three friends,” before the broadcast signal cut off the rest of the interpreter’s translation. Whether on being called Xi’s friend or on some other topic, Modi laughed several times during the conversation—the nervous laughter barely masking the unenviable predicament he finds himself in.

Humiliated by US President Donald Trump and his closest advisors, the New York Times compared Modi’s antics at Tianjin to that of a “jilted lover.” Modi’s Hindutva supporters put up posters in Bhopal, announcing a mock funeral for Trump on 1 September and labelled him a traitor to the cause of Sanatana Dharma. After being abandoned by Trump, Modi was now actively engaging Xi to send a message. This scenario, along with being a meme-fest, has serious ramifications. India’s foreign policy, as Aakar Patel aptly put it, has ended up reducing Modi to being tossed between Trump and Xi. The Chinese are fully aware of this dynamic. “China helped Pakistan shoot down seven Indian fighter jets, and Sino-Indian relations, long frozen, suddenly began to rekindle their relationship,” read one viral Weibo post. “And it was the Indian Prime Minister who personally visited to discuss the matter.”

Besides short clips and photos, which are always the main outcome of any foreign trip by Modi, there was little substantive reason to view the Tianjin trip as a successful visit.