A much-anticipated meeting of the leaders of the world’s two most populous nations took place Sunday with China’s Xi Jinping welcoming India’s Narendra Modi on the sidelines of regional summit in Tianjin – as the neighbors explore a rapprochement accelerated by their shared frictions with the United States.
Xi and Modi met at the Tianjin Guest House in what is the Indian leader’s first visit to China in seven years. The two shook hands and posed for cameras before their sitdown, which comes as both nations face stiff US tariffs as well as western scrutiny over their relationships with Russia as the war in Ukraine rages.
Modi thanked Xi for his invitation to China, saying an “agreement has been reached” between special representatives from both countries regarding “border management,” referring to tensions at their disputed border that escalated after a deadly 2020 skirmish and cratered relations at the time.
“We are committed to taking our relations forward on the basis of mutual trust and respect,” Modi said. Modi is in China for a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a Beijing-and Moscow-backed regional security grouping that has emerged as a cornerstone of Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s drive to rebalance global power in their favor.
The Indian leader’s attendance and the sit-down with Xi marks a milestone in relations between Beijing and New Delhi, which have begun to ease their frictions – a shift that becomes more valuable to India in the wake of a surprise negative turn in US-India ties in recent weeks.
The trip will also give Modi an opportunity to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, with the two expected to hold bilateral talks on Monday, according to Russian state media. Those come just after hefty US tariffs on Indian exports kicked in, linked to Indian purchases of Russian oil, which Washington sees as helping to funding Putin’s war in Ukraine.
The war in Ukraine will loom over the SCO gathering and the flurry of diplomacy around it, coming as Western leaders ramp up pressure on Putin – and his partners – to end the now more than three and half year invasion. Beijing is widely seen as happy for the newfound tensions between Trump and Modi to reduce what have been burgeoning security ties between the two partners. Chinese officials have watched with unease the elevation of the Quad security dialogue between India, the US and its allies Australia and Japan, widely seen as a bid to counter China.
There has been a gradual normalization of ties between India and China after Modi and Xi met on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Russia last October, which came as the two sides reached an agreement on military disengagement along their disputed border.
Source: Here