Xi's moment to work out lasting peace with India

Despite China and India both being headed by their most consequential leaders of the last few decades, the two haven't been able to permanently resolve their outstanding disputes.

- Raghav Chandra

This is more intriguing because, even though India has never been an aggressor, China prefers to keep the borders simmering and compels India to constantly look over its mountainous shoulders, trying to anticipate idiosyncratic moves by its northern neighbour. A radical resolution is the need of the hour.

The recent disengagement in eastern Ladakh is transient if not illusory. Normalisation will continue to remain tenuous and fragile, captive to the larger geopolitical situation. A Quad faceoff in the South China Sea, not impossible with Trump in the White House, could instantly set the clock back to 2020, vaporising current gains.

The onus for this imbroglio must fall on Chinese President Xi Jinping. It is intriguing that he hasn't seen value in ending military engagement with a peace-loving, yet nuclear-armed neighbour. India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has never baulked at doing what is diplomatically proper. It is Xi who had upped the ante in Doklam and later in Galwan and Arunachal, and even refrained from attending the G20 conference.

There is little doubt that both India and China need each other, not only geopolitically but also economically. At a time when western companies are determined to de-risk their supply chains away from China, a collaboration is mutually beneficial. For several reasons, now is the most opportune time for Xi to reach out to Modi for a permanent settlement of disputes.