Diplomacy First: Prez Xi Jinping may not like to imperil Varanasi summit

China’s call for a meeting of the UNSC is a complex issue. It depends upon many factors, but mainly on the provision under which such a meeting is being called. There are many provisions under which China could have called for an UNSC meeting, including some insignificant sections. Which one it is, is not clear. The question to ask is, whether President Xi, who is scheduled to come to Varanasi, would like to jeopardise his trip by getting involved in Kashmir? I doubt it. External Affairs Minister Jaishankar was in China and it could be that Beijing shared its thinking about the issue, in which case Chinese diplomacy is conducted without too much harm to Sino-Indian ties.

—Rakesh Sood, ORF, former diplomat