Outlook English - Print Subscribers Copy Outlook English, 07 May 2018 | Page 20

TA L KING BACK
relations back on track.
“I think such a meeting is important to
stabilise political ties at the highest
level,” says Srinath Raghavan, senior
fellow at New Delhi’s Centre for
Policy Research.
Raghavan points out that over the last
couple of years, especially during and
after the Doklam standoff, there is a
sense that the relationship is acquiring
a zero-sum dynamic. That is to say that
the ability of the sides to cooperate is
increasingly under strain.
No doubt, the attempt of both the
Indian PM and the Chinese President
will be to put Sino-Indian relations on a
more cooperative plane where they
work together to face global challenges
and make use of mutually beneficial
opportunities.
“A meeting between Modi and Xi will
help both sides focus on the many rea-
sons why India and China need to work
together and prevent further deteriora-
tion in ties,” adds Raghavan.
U
Gandhi and Deng Xiaping that had
helped pave the way for a meaningful
re-engagement and enabled bilateral
ties to finally emerge out of the shadows
of the 1962 border war. Rajiv, at the end
of his tenure as PM and marginalised on
the Bofors scandal issue within his own
party and government had shown polit-
ical courage to go to China. Simply put,
he felt the need for a paradigm change,
or a new template.
“We see a more assertive China today
than what the country was in 1988. The
old template needed to be updated to
NDOUBTEDLY, the immediate
PTI
impetus for this informal summit
has been the prolonged stand-off in Foreign Ministers Sushma Swaraj
Doklam. South Block officials say and Wang Yi in Beijing on April 22
that Doklam allowed both sides to look
at the ground reality and assess the deal with the new reality,” says Kantha,
emerging scenario in the region and at who also served as India’s ambassador
the international level. The leadership to Beijing.
Though BJP supporters are loath to
realised that though they have serious
differences on core issues, they also compare Modi’s visit with that of the
have many areas where they cooperate Congress PM, some parallels cannot be
for mutual benefit. Ultimately, both denied. Not only does the summit come
sides acknowledged that despite their towards the end of Modi’s tenure, the
differences, their commonalities far PM is also under considerable political
stress, and is being criticised for unful-
outweigh their differences.
“Post-Doklam, there was a reality check filled promises and attacks on Dalits and
on both sides that they cannot allow the minority groups.
Though Modi’s authority within the
negativity in relations to fester, as it may
have serious consequences,” says Ashok BJP and his government is unchallenged,
Kantha, director of the Institute of the manner in which South Block offi-
cials and BJP leaders a