Modi-Xi summit: A nudge, not a shift

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met formally on October 23 after a gap of five years in Russia's Kazan, on the margins of the Brics+ meeting hosted by President Vladimir Putin of Russia.

- SHYAM SARAN

Brics is a grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, which has recently expanded to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. It is, therefore, a unique assemblage of several major emerging economies and representative of the Global South. This geopolitical context is important. The value of Brics as a leading group of the Global South would diminish if its two most consequential countries—India and China—were not on talking terms.

We have seen this story before. Relations between the two countries plummeted after an ugly standoff between their troops at the strategically important but contested tri-junction of the borders of India, Bhutan, and China at Doklam in June 2017. This was resolved a couple of weeks later, clearing the decks for Mr Modi's visit to China for the annual Brics summit.