Why the Glass From Tianjin Is Half-Full

After the success of Modi's China visit comes the hard part of following up. Two consequential issues playing along are the border talks and the India-US poker game over tariffs

- M K BHADRAKUMAR

Surveying Prime Minister Narendra Modi's two-day visit to Tianjin, most China experts and ex-bureaucrats are skeptical whether an India-China rapprochement is possible. India's "permanent establishment," with its tunnel vision, is wary of China's intentions. Like in Bertolt Brecht's existential play Waiting for Godot, they would rather await Donald Trump's arrival. Thus, it is largely left to the global audience to take note of the geopolitics of Modi's visit.

If Modi traveled to China with hopes of rebuilding the India-China relations from ground zero, he returned home with a glass half-full. That is not because the visit and the meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping weren't meticulously planned. On the contrary, high-level discussions in New Delhi between top officials of the two countries had preceded the visit up to the eleventh hour.

First, the impact of the visit on bilateral cooperation. Xi told Modi that achieving a "dragon-elephant dance" is the right choice for the two neighboring countries. Modi argued that peace and tranquility at the border are prerequisites for bilateral ties. While Xi flagged that the bilateral ties cannot be defined merely by the boundary issue, Modi added, and Xi agreed, that India and China are partners, not adversaries, and would have far more consensus than differences. Both agreed that differences should not turn into disputes.

Both India and China see the potential to leverage the external environment of tariff walls to build greater mutual understanding to advance commercial ties. Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri stated at a media briefing that this is a discussion going on at many levels between the two governments, and businesses and entities that are involved in trade in the two countries, "and we will have to see how it evolves."