PM Modi is set to visit China, and here is what he’ll be talking about

Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi is all set to embark on a two-nation political tour, starting from Vietnam and followed by China, where he would be taking part in the G20 Summit in Hangzhou.

The recent past has seen a lot of tiffs between the Indian and Chinese government, be it over China’s opposition to India’s NSG application, or the topic of expulsion of Chinese journalists from India and how it was reported in the Chinese media.

However, since there is always some scope for a healthy discussion, here are five points that PM Modi would be pushing, as per a TNN report:

Pakistan

The recent unrest in Kashmir saw Pakistan openly supporting Kashmiri terrorists and separatists against India, after which, India questioned protests in PoK over rigged elections, stating that PoK PoK belonged to India.

It was then that PM Modi had warned Pakistan that India would raise its human rights violations in Balochistan in case Islamabad continues to support terrorist activities in Kashmir.

Since China is a close ally to Pakistan and is seen supporting it, there are high chances that Pakistan would be a topic of discussion between India and China.

China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)

India has been putting a lot of pressure on Islamabad, and this could prove to be harmful to the Chinese economy. CPEC is a $46-billion project, using which China wants to gain direct access to the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean Region. It has also invested heavily in the Gwadar Port in Balochistan for this very purpose.

A critical part of this corridor runs through PoK, and now that India has decided to reinforce its legal claims on PoK, Beijing is bound to be upset. Even though the Chinese government has steered away from commenting on this, some sources say that Chinese think tanks have suggested China-Pakistan taking a joint military action against India so that the CPEC project is unhindered.

South China Sea dispute

This territorial dispute has made China stand against several nations, and this is benefitting India.

After an international tribunal ruled in favour of India, that Beijing’s claims in the South China Sea were not justified, India had issued a statement in which it made a direct appeal to all nations involved in the conflict to “exercise self-restraint,” so that the dispute is not complicated further.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was on his visit to India recently, when he said that it was up to New Delhi to support Beijing on the South China Sea dispute or not, also making sure that New Delhi does not raise the South China Sea issue anywhere.

India’s budding friendships with South East Asia countries

Vietnam is also involved in the South China Sea dispute, and Modi will be visiting it before China, where he would be signing a contract for the supply of four patrol vessels to the Vietnamese military. He could also discuss defence cooperation with Vietnam, much to China’s chagrin.

India is increasingly getting friendly with other countries in the South East Asia, and China will most likely see these emerging friendships as a not-entirely-friendly alliance.

India’s infrastructure development along China border

Till almost a decade back, India had not built any infrastructure alongside Chinese border, making sure that Chinese be able to advance slowly in case Beijing invades India. However, China built up high-quality roads and rail links along the 3500-km border with India.

Now that India is also looking to push infrastructure projects there, China has said that these efforts would only escalate tensions between the two countries. It was only recently that Beijing criticized India’s decision to deploy the advanced, supersonic cruise missile system BrahMos on its border with China, claiming that this deployment was “the opposite” of peace and stability. This too could be a topic of discussion, given that China on its part has done heavy military deployment in that area.

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