Xi-Modi Warmth Flows From Sabarmati To Delhi

NEW DELHI: A face-off between the Indian and Chinese armies in Ladakh took the sheen off a summit that started on a promising note on the banks of the Sabarmati in Ahmedabad.

Insisting on a quick resolution of the boundary issue, PM Narendra Modi made the border crisis the dominant topic of conversation with Chinese president Xi Jinping. “We need to have a clarification on [the] LAC to maintain peaceful relations between the two countries and solve the border dispute at the earliest,” Modi told the media.?

Xi employed the now-familiar Chinese stalling tactic, saying he’d give the relevant orders to get a better picture of what exactly was happening. But the two sides showed just how far apart they are on this issue. In his statement, the PM focused on the border crisis. Xi merely touched on it towards the end of his statement, just to say that such incidents “happen”.

On the other hand, India and China signed a record 16 agreements where Beijing promised investments worth $20 billion in five years, a very different figure from the $100 billion indicated by Chinese officials in Mumbai a few days ago. But India opened the doors to Chinese investment in infrastructure, including upgrading railway tracks, stations and doubling the speed of trains.

?Xi said China would welcome India into the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, but expects India to welcome it into SAARC. India may find this difficult. China in SAARC would effectively isolate India.? As a sweetener, China offered a new road to Kailash Mansarovar through Nathu La in Sikkim.?

But Modi, like Manmohan Singh before him, made peace on the border a precondition to increased cooperation. Just as the Depsang crisis in April 2013, around 1,500 Indian and Chinese troops remain eyeball to eyeball. Officials hoped the Modi-Xi dialogue might have created the conditions for a withdrawal, even as NSA Ajit Doval personally monitored the border situation.

Xi’s assertion that China was committed to “peaceful development” rang hollow when later on Thursday he embarked on a charm offensive addressing a select gathering of scholars, diplomats and politicians.

The “China Dream” would be possible only in a “stable, peaceful external environment, Xi said. “China has the determination to work with India through friendly consultation to settle the boundary question at an early date.... We have the sincerity to work with India to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas before we are finally able to settle the boundary question.”

Foreign minister, Sushma Swaraj greeted Xi with “Ge xia, wo hen huanying nin dao yindu lai.” It was a part of the positive atmospherics that accompanied the Xi visit. The Chinese president reciprocated in full measure, when he quoted liberally from Rabindranath Tagore and showed his knowledge of Indian history. Modi spoke of a “new chapter”, a sentiment endorsed by Xi when he said India could look forward to a “spectacular future” under Modi.