#dnaEdit: The Modi-Xi push

Atmospherics is a much devalued word through overuse, but it describes quite accurately the tone set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and visiting Chinese president Xi Jinping in their personal and informal interaction in Ahmedabad. It spilled over to the official business of talks and agreements in New Delhi on Thursday. It is true that bilateral agreements were signed in Ahmedabad too, but the focus was on Gujarat’s cultural capital, the Buddhist linkages and the Gandhi ashram. It was a moment for Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan to soak up the Indian cultural ambience of the Gujarat kind. But the feel good factor created in Ahmedabad made the talks in Delhi constructive — something that became evident  at the event in Hyderabad House in the capital where the two leaders read out prepared statements. These indicated the ground covered by the two sides this time round. Despite the absence of a surfeit of headline-grabbing breakthroughs, the statements contained substantial matters. 

Allowing a new access route to Mansarovar through Nathu La, in addition to the existing one from Uttarakhand, which has an all-weather road and would even allow older people to go on pilgrimage to the Himalayan shrine on the Chinese side, was symbolism. But it went  beyond tokenism. It has been decided that Beijing will train 1,500 Indian teachers in Mandarin and send 500 Chinese teachers to India as well. It seems after a long time the two States are ready to cooperate directly with each other in many areas, including modernising railway stations, a five-year economic and trade development policy, and the setting up of two industrial parks. The one in Gujarat will  manufacture power sector equipment and the other in Maharashtra automotive components. The two sides did not duck the prickly border issue,  Modi spelling out the need to tackle the intrusions as well as visa-related issues. Xi stressed that a leftover of history (a favoured Chinese formulation), the border issue, should be resolved.

The more interesting observation came from Xi who said that India’s presence in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and that of China in South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) would strengthen mutual interests of the two countries. For a long time, China had resisted the idea of India in the SCO arguing that India had nothing to do with the region covered by SCO because it fell outside the ambit of political geography. Neither did China consider India a factor in the Asian strategic sphere. The Chinese dispensation’s  present shift, therefore, is indeed of strategic importance  in Asia.   

While its Modi’s personal stamp that drives foreign policy initiatives in India at the moment, Xi is one in the line of Communist Party of China’s bureaucrats who facilitates continuity in China’s foreign policy. Xi brings in the quiet efficiency of a CEO while Modi plays the role of a traditional charismatic and popular leader. Despite the differences in their profile, both Modi and Xi are propelling the two countries towards greater economic activity and cooperation. It would be wrong then to see the Modi-Xi encounter through political lens, and count the brownie points that Modi scored in raising the border issue. China is viewing India more seriously than ever. And it would be naïve to believe that China is keen wean India away from either Japan or the US.