REACHING OUT
PM Modi , President Xi are to meet during the SCO Summit in Qingdao , China
PTI
All Hands Aboard India and China try to move towards cordial ties , sidestep last year ’ s negativity
by Pranay Sharma
AS the Chinese Communist Party amends its constitution for Xi Jinping ’ s emergence as its most powerful leader since Mao Zedong — forcing the outside world to take note of this extremely significant development — the leadership in New Delhi too , keeping the new ground reality in mind , has begun to make necessary adjustments in resetting its relations with the Middle Kingdom .
A serious attempt is being made by the Narendra Modi government to move away from the strains that plagued Sino-
Indian ties for the better part of last year , culminating in the Doklam crisis — the longest military stand-off between the two neighbours since the Samdorong Chu crisis in 1987 — to move to a more cordial engagement with China .
Indian defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman is likely to visit China later this month — a visit at this level from New Delhi after two years — to hold talks with senior members of the Chinese government and military for reviving the Confidence Building Measures agreed between the two sides to ensure a calm and stable border .
In coming months , a number of other visits are also being planned between officials and leaders of the two countries to strengthen bilateral engagement . All this is being done to create the right atm osphere for a meeting between Prime Minister Modi and President Xi in Qingdao , China , on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit in June .
Former MEA secretary K . C . Singh says , “ Modi ’ s foreign policy is mainly tactical . So we will have to see how it pans out .” But Oxford historian Rana Mitter , a specialist on republican China , feels , “ The rapprochement should be encouraged . India and China are second-order problems for each other ,” he says , pointing out that Pakistan is more
14 OUTLOOK 19 March 2018