BRIC by BRIC: China & India build bridges

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have indicated a warming of relations after their first formal meeting in five years.

The two leaders met on the sidelines of this week’s BRICS summit in Russia.

It comes in the wake of a border agreement signed earlier that looks to ease tensions on the Himalayan border between the two nations. Patrols on both sides will no longer be challenged along the LAC, the “Line of Actual Control”. It’s a position Delhi has been pushing for since 2020, and the Modi government regards it as a major victory over a stubborn neighbour.

In 2020, Chinese and Indian troops clashed in a desperate hand-to-hand skirmish in the  Galwan Valley, in the eastern Ladakh region. The fighting left 24 dead, mostly on the Indian side.

Commenting after the bilateral meeting President Xi reflected on the history between the two countries as both leaders appeared to reveal a new determination to calm a flashpoint.

The new agreement also clears the way for a more formal bilateral meeting between the two leaders in the near future.

Speaking after the meeting, President Xi was upbeat. "China and India are both ancient civilizations, major developing countries and important members of the Global South," Xi said. "We are both at a crucial phase in our respective modernisation endeavours. It's important for both sides to have more communication and cooperation, properly handle differences and disagreements and to facilitate each other's pursuit of development aspirations."

Officials from both sides will now do exactly that, moving to secure meetings between the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and India’s National Security advisor Ajit Doval.

And there is much to discuss - India and China share a 3,488 km long border, and China claims about 90,000 sq km of India's territory, including in Arunachal Pradesh.

For its part India says hat 38,000 sq km of land in the disputed Aksai Chin region is part of Ladakh. While maintaining  that Arunachal Pradesh was an integral part of India.

Border tensions have cast a long shadow on India-China relations for decades. The two countries fought a war in 1962 in which India suffered a heavy defeat.

But this new chapter is not expected to find instant solutions to the remaining geopolitical disagreements, but will more focussed on attempting to normalise relations across the board.

Business relations between the two have been strained in recent years, although China has been one of India’s top two trading partners for the last decade. In fiscal year 2024, bilateral trade between the two nations reached $118.4 billion, with India looking to China to supply its tech sector and  pharmaceuticals.

-            Asia Media Centre