Why Modi’s Meeting With Xi Jinping Matters

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheduled visit to China starting tomorrow(27 April) represents another huge foreign policy achievement of the current National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. The visit in itself is historic for many reasons and though the outcome may not be immediately tangible, it could take Sino-Indian ties to the next strategic and economic level.

Never before has a meeting between an Indian Prime Minister and the head of a superpower been fixed at such a short notice: the meeting was announced on Sunday (April 22) evening after Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj’s hour-long meeting with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi at the Diaoyutai state guest house in the Chinese capital. Sources in South Block (which houses the Ministry of External Affairs) said that the proposal for the summit between the two leaders was mooted by both the sides. Never before, except it times of crisis, has the leader of a superpower met with the head of any country, save for a close strategic ally, at such a short notice.

Also, China President Xi Jinping will fly halfway across his country to meet Narendra Modi at Wuhan in the central province of Hubei. This is also unusual – China’s protocol-bound leaders always receive and meet foreign leaders in Beijing. The venue of the meeting – Mao’s private villa where he hosted United States President Richard Nixon during that path-breaking visit in 1972 which formalised US-China ties – is also significant. The suggestion to hold the summit over two days at this villa came from the Chinese side and is being seen as a very positive signal by Indian foreign policy mandarins who say that given the Chinese penchant for symbolism, holding the summit at this villa indicates the importance that the Chinese are attaching to this meeting. The last time Xi held such an informal meeting was with US President Donald Trump at the latter’s Florida estate.

This unprecedented informal summit at Wuhan, on the banks of the Yangtze river, will not be a structured one and the two leaders will have free-wheeling and frank discussions and exchange of views on any topic that they wish to bring to the coffee table (though they will, in all probability, be sipping on fine Chinese tea). Senior diplomats involved in preparations for Modi’s forthcoming visit said that the two leaders will not be accompanied by any aides during their one-on-one meetings. Only translators will be sitting in.

“The primary purpose of this meeting between the Chinese President and the Indian Prime Minister is to understand each others global perspectives and forge a close understanding that will help both the countries grow without getting into each other’s way. China understands that India too has global aspirations and if a synergy is created between the aspirations of both the countries, it would lead to a stable global order,” said a senior serving diplomat who is involved in preparations for the forthcoming summit.

Unlike other summits, this will not end with any joint statement or agreements. Even a joint press conference to declare the outcome of the summit is not on the cards now. Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou told journalists in Beijing earlier this week: “This kind of one-on-one is not often seen in the world. Relevant information will be released in a detailed and timely manner. The Chinese side will provide some unique arrangements, and some arrangements will go beyond even the expectations of the Indian side”.

This unique summit between the Indian Prime Minister and the Chinese President is also a great tribute to Narendra Modi’s strategic vision. Beijing realises that Modi is one Indian leader who the Chinese President can constructively engage to discuss the emerging world order and the current and future global strategic situations. The Chinese President would not have, perhaps, engaged with any other Indian leader in such a manner, says the serving diplomat. And never before has an Indian Prime Minister met the Chinese President so many times – ten times over the last four years – and often at very short intervals and notices.

A hint of what the summit’s agenda would be can be obtained from the involvement of Chinese Vice-President Wang Qishan in the meet. Wang had received Sushma Swaraj (who is now in Mongolia and is expected to join Modi in Wuhan) in Beijing immediately after the Modi-Xi summit was announced and will be present at Wuhan. It is quite unusual for the Chinese President and the Vice-President to travel together to meet a foreign leader. That apart, Wang is China’s acknowledged ‘America hand’ who had led China in crucial talks with the US during the global financial crisis. His presence at Wuhan indicates that the impending trade war between the US and China could also figure in the Modi-Xi talks. Wang is also a very close and trusted political associate of Xi; both have known each other since China’s ‘Cultural Revolution’ when they were forced to work in a rural commune.

Modi will be travelling to China on a scheduled visit in June for the security summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) which India became a member of last year. Going to China so soon before a scheduled visit is also highly unusual and indicates the importance Beijing attaches to forging stronger ties with India under Modi. In fact, say foreign policy mandarins, China wants India to assume a greater role in the SCO and Xi will most likely discuss this with Modi. China also wants India’s help in safeguarding and strengthening the present multilateral trade system. Wang, in his interaction with Sushma Swaraj, outlined China’s desire to forge a fresh new relationship with India based on a strategic consensus on bilateral issues and common concerns. Such a relationship, feels Beijing, can boost cooperation in development, regional security and the global partnership.

Comparisons are being made between the forthcoming summit between Modi and Xi and the meeting between (then) Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Deng Xiaoping three decades ago that broke the ice between India and China. Such a comparison is irrelevant: the 1988 summit was a formal and structured one where Chinese and Indian diplomats and policy-makers met intensively before the summit to hammer out a joint statement that the two leaders merely signed. Rajiv Gandhi and Deng indulged only in small talk and exchanged pleasantries while the actual work – setting the ground for stable ties between the two countries – was done by diplomats and some other foreign policy experts.

And proof of this was provided by Chinese foreign minister who said that the two leaders (Modi and Xi) will “conduct strategic communication on the great changes of the current world that have never been seen in the past hundred years, and exchange in-depth views on the overall, long-term and strategic issues regarding future development of bilateral relations”. The Chinese never expected Rajiv Gandhi to engage is such talks with Deng Xiaoping. The 1988 summit was held to defrost Indo-China ties after a two-decade long deep freeze and in the aftermath of a faceoff between the armies of the two countries at Sumdorong Chu that could have turned ugly. “It was to avoid such potentially explosive faceoffs and to re-open ties between the two countries that the 1988 summit was held. The forthcoming summit this weekend will take Indo-China ties to the next strategic level,” said the serving bureaucrat who would cannot be named since he is not the MEA spokesperson.

Incidentally, another significant foreign policy achievement of the current NDA government under Modi has been the shift in the responsibility for handing relations with India from the Chinese Premier’s office to that of the Chinese President. This is a robust indication of the importance that China attaches to relationship with India under Modi and the upgradation of Indo-China ties. Modi’s forthcoming summit with Xi caps his recent diplomatic successes in London and some other capitals. The way the world treats India under Modi has certainly changed, and for the better.

Post-script: Till 2014, India and China used to be hyphenated as Sino-India, indicating the primacy that India’s political and diplomatic establishment used to accord to China even over their own country (India). China was the only country that was given such a status by India’s foreign policy establishment that was packed with left-leaning experts and diplomats. Now, Sino-India has given way to Indo-China, and this marks paradigm change in the way India under Modi looks at China.