Meetings on the margin

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to China has attracted a lot of strategic significance not because of the SCO summit meeting taking place in Tianjin but because of his scheduled meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping in an effort to recalibrate the frosty relations between the two countries. These meetings on the margins of the multilateral summit are significant. Such meetings provide opportunities for an interaction between and among world leaders to discuss bilateral issues which the format of the multilateral meeting does not permit.

- BY RUP NARAYAN DAS

Such meetings are increasingly assuming great significance in terms of strategic communication especially when there is a political or military impasse between two countries. Summit meetings and structured dialogues between leaders are, at times, difficult to work out due to paucity of time and the nitty-gritty they involve. It is in this backdrop that sideline meetings create the atmospherics for a closer interface and interaction between leaders. Take for example the Bangkok BIMSTEC meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bangladesh leader Mohammad Yunus which took place in April this year.

Although there was media speculation about such a bilateral meeting, neither side made it public that it was to take place, even though much diplomatic activity must have preceded it given the frosty relationship between the two countries. In a thoughtful gesture, Mr Modi who is an excellent communicator smartly greeted Mr Yunus on Eid ahead of his departure to Bangkok in spite of the latter’s cosying up to China and describing China as the “guardian of the ocean” and urging it to manage its trade ties with India’s northeast by using Bangladesh ports. In a swift damage control exercise Dhaka said that the statement was unintentional and bereft of any mala fide intent. Professor Yunus was also mindfully prepared for the unstructured bilateral meeting while presenting the Indian Prime Minister a framed photograph of Modi presenting him a gold medal in January 2015 at the Indian Science Congress in Mumbai.