The three-day trip to China by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was rich in symbolism and atmospherics, but did little to remove the basic distrust tied to decades-long border disputes and mutual suspicion about their strategic objectives.
Candid talk by Modi not only suggested that, despite growing economic cooperation India remained wary of China and would carry on his policy of balancing the Chinese threat by building close ties with other powers. In a pointed allusion to the reason behind India cultivating relations with the United States, Japan, or Australia, Modi stressed the need to “ensure that our relationships with other countries do not become a source of concern for each other.”
India’s engagement with China has become circumscribed by intractable boundary disputes.
During Modi’s visit, a number of agreements were signed including on outer space, civil nuclear cooperation, skill development, expanding educational exchange, and a new leaders’ forum at the provincial level among others.
The two militaries also decided to operationalize the hotline between their two headquarters as well as increasing the number of border meeting points for their military personnel to maintain peace on the border. India also decided to grant electronic visas to Chinese visitors to India.
Plain Speaking
Despite the anodyne nature of these pacts, the relationship has shifted: Modi’s visit to China will be remembered for his plain speaking, by no means an insignificant achievement. For years, Indian political leaders had traveled to China and said what the Chinese wanted to hear.
Modi changed all that when he openly “stressed the need for China to reconsider its approach on some of the issues that hold us back from realizing full potential of our partnership” and “suggested that China should take a strategic and long-term view of our relations.”
The joint statement issued during Modi’s visit was circumspect, focusing on “the imperative of forging strategic trust.” In his speech at Tsinghua University too, Modi went beyond the rhetorical flourishes of Sino-Indian cooperation, pointing out the need to resolve the border dispute and to “ensure that our relationships with other countries do not become a source of concern for each other.”
