With growing tensions between India and China, which reached a critically low point with the prolonged military stand-off at Doklam in the summer of 2017, the ‘informal’ summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping held on 27-28 April, 2018, raised considerable interest. Especially since Jinping invited Modi to his hometown in China in an unprecedented manner. CPR faculty analyse the summit and the way forward in the curated media commentary below.
- Shyam Saran writes in the Scroll that the summit indicates that ‘Doklam may have triggered a rethink on India-China relations going beyond tactical compulsions.’ According to Saran, even though the summit is a response to ‘growing uncertainty in both the regional geopolitical landscape in Asia and the world’, it is only likely to provide a ‘brief breathing space’ to India, unless India builds up her economic and military abilities rapidly.
- Zorawar Daulet Singh published a series of articles and appeared in media interviews on the summit. In The Hindu, he writes that the summit is ‘a mutual recognition in both India and China that a posture of hostility has undermined their interests.’ He reiterates this in an interview for The Wire, also unpacking in detail how the geopolitical uncertainty negatively impacted both countries at different levels spurring this course correction, even though it may not mean the end of all hostilities. He also made a television appearance on CGTN America, one of the international language channels run by Chinese state broadcaster, and wrote in Hindi in Live Hindustan.
- G Parthasarathy writes in The Hindu Business Line that the Wuhan summit has come in the wake of growing international pressures on China, and India must use the opportunity to resolve border issues and secure market access, while continuing to strengthen its military preparedness.
