Two to Tango

Keeping relations on an even keel with China is important for India's economic growth, but joining a world order led by it would be suicidal

- Dilip Sinha

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Tianjin to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, designed to reset India-China relations after the five-year Galwan hiatus, became the most talked about international event of the day.

The two countries had initiated the process a year earlier when Modi met with Xi Jinping in Kazan at a BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) meeting. But coming as it did in the midst of India-US trade tensions and Xi's grandiose talk of a new global order, it sparked unusual interest. Donald Trump's sanctions on India were seen as the provocation for Modi's visit, and the bonhomie between him, Xi and Vladimir Putin a public rebuff to him.

While the summit produced an unprecedented turnout, the extraordinary global attention cannot be attributed to any new dynamism in the organisation. It drew world attention because it came on the heels of the spectacular failure of Trump's Alaska initiative and Putin's rebuff. Trump's tense meeting with European leaders was in sharp contrast to the warmth carefully orchestrated by the leaders in Tianjin.

Modi’s meeting with Xi was the pièce de resistance for the media. Xi played the statesman, his statements replete with platitudes counselling both countries to be partners not rivals, inviting the dragon and the elephant to tango and cautioning against letting the border dispute define the overall relationship. He delighted the Indian delegation by including a strong condemnation of the Pahalgam terror attack, whose exclusion had led Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to refuse to endorse the joint statement of the SCO defence ministers meeting in June.