Editorial | Lost opportunity for Modi and China ties
- By missing summit of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, Indian PM has wasted chance to address strained relations between two countries
As President Xi Jinping, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and other regional leaders sat down for security talks in Kazakhstan there was one rather significant empty chair. Unfortunately, India’s newly re-elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi skipped the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in the Kazakh capital of Astana, sending foreign affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar instead.
It was a missed opportunity for the leaders of China and India, the world’s two most populous countries each with giant economies and many common interests, to address frayed relations.
Modi’s motives for passing were unclear. The agenda was likely to be dominated by China and Russia.
He had just won a tighter-than-expected election in June. The Hindustan Times reported that it was understood “strained relations with China” and his preoccupation with the parliament session, which entered its final day on Wednesday as the summit was opening, influenced his decision.
Relations have soured since an ongoing Himalayan border dispute erupted in a deadly clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers in 2020, their worst military conflict in decades. There has also been a warming of ties between India and the United States, two nations who have expressed mutual security concerns about China.
