PM Modi will visit China to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit.
Possibility of Modi, President Jinping and President Putin meeting on the sideline
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Tianjin, China, from August 31 to September 1 to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit. The visit signals another step towards normalising ties between the two countries.
The bilateral relations between the two countries had strained after the 2020 Galwan clash. However, de-escalation started in October 2024 between India and China as both countries began implementing an agreement to end a military standoff in the Galwan region. Recently, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar also visited China to meet his counterpart.
While Modi’s last visit to China was in 2019, he did meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Kazan in October 2024.
The visit comes amid the imposition of stiff tariffs by United States President Donald Trump and increasing pressure on India regarding oil purchases from Russia. Under the current circumstances, India’s recalibration of ties with China is seen as a possible counterbalance to US pressures.
India's participation would also be against the backdrop of Chinese support for Pakistan and the shadow of the April 22 Pahalgam attack.
In June, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh refused to sign a joint statement at an SCO Defence Ministers' meeting. The draft had omitted any mention of the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 civilians, while referring instead to Balochistan, a move seen as a tacit accusation against India.
Pahalgam's exclusion from the document appeared to have been done at the behest of Pakistan.
The next month, though, China issued a strong statement against terror as the US designated The Resistance Front, a proxy of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, as a foreign terrorist organisation for its involvement in the Pahalgam attack.
"China firmly opposes all forms of terrorism and strongly condemns the terrorist attack that occurred on April 22... China calls on regional countries to enhance counterterrorism cooperation and jointly maintain regional security and stability," said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian to the media.
This time, discussions among the 10 SCO member states are expected to focus on terrorism, regional security and trade. Efforts will be made to restore stability and dialogue in India-China relations.
There is a possibility that Modi will have bilateral meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Jinping on the sidelines of the summit.
In October 2024, Modi and Jinping met at the BRICS summit in Kazan. Following that, efforts to reduce border tensions between the two countries had gained momentum and the resumption of the Kailash-Mansarovar pilgrimage yatra had helped normalise ties to a great extent.
Established in 2001, SCO aims to promote regional stability through cooperation. The bloc currently has 10 member states -- Belarus, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
With NDTV inputs
