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Don’t Call It a Reset: The Modi-Xi Meeting Wasn’t a Turning Point

Both sides are trying to prevent another crisis while their core disagreements remain unresolved.

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to New Delhi last month for the BRICS summit prompted speculation that India and China are moving toward a reset. Some see an opening for rapprochement, while others attribute the renewed engagement to deteriorating India-U.S. relations. Both interpretations overstate the shift in bilateral ties. Xi’s visit was important, but it did not mark a turning point.

Xi came to New Delhi for the BRICS summit in September, which also gave him an opportunity to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. India and China’s participation in BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) should not be mistaken for an alignment of interests. India’s engagement within multilateral organizations is a longstanding feature of its foreign policy, and China has not been a decisive factor in that approach.

Since the 2020 Galwan clashes, India has sought to stabilize ties and manage differences with China. These efforts have gained momentum amid U.S President Donald Trump’s increasingly hostile policies toward India and much of Asia. Yet the reasons for renewed engagement with Beijing go beyond the state of India-U.S. relations.

The resumption of high-level dialogue, leadership meetings, and direct connectivity are important developments. Another Galwan-like border confrontation would carry heavy domestic costs and could be difficult to recover from. Preventing a recurrence of such violence is a priority. But this does not require India to reconsider its position on the underlying differences.

It is also important to note that India never abandoned dialogue with China after Galwan. Keeping communication channel open has remained part of its approach, even as tensions persisted along the border. The latest meetings continue that policy; they do not demonstrate that the relationship or India’s approach to it has fundamentally changed.

The border remains the principal obstacle. China’s recent statement that it does not recognize the Union Territory of Ladakh underlined the depth of the disagreement. There is little basis for expecting a reset while the two sides remain so far apart on territorial issues. Nor is the border the only source of friction. China’s relationship with Pakistan and the persistent trade imbalance remain contentious issues, too. There is little evidence of progress on any of these fundamental differences.

The separate readouts issued after the Modi-Xi meeting offered further evidence of the distance between them. There was no joint statement. The Chinese readout included a reference to Tibet and Taiwan that was absent from the Indian account. Beijing described India as a partner, but the Indian readout did not use the same language. The differences in wording hardly suggest a shared political understanding.

Deteriorating India-U.S. relations and uncertainty over Washington’s commitment to Indo-Pacific security have shaped the circumstances in which New Delhi engages........

© The Diplomat