New Delhi: Amid one of the biggest India-China military mobilizations in recent history across eastern Ladakh and the successive failures of a series of talks at various levels, hopes for a resolution to the ongoing face-off between the two Asian giants rest on the top leaders—Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The two leaders are being accorded a rare opportunity to break the ice and possibly push through steps for a resolution or easing of the border tension when they participate under different ‘umbrella’ platforms for as many as five times in the next 20 days.
ETV Bharat wrote months ago on the futility of talks on any other platform other than the Modi-Xi level due to the very intractable nature of the border issue, and the fact that only PM Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping, both strongly nationalistic leaders riding the crest of domestic popularity at the moment, have the necessary wherewithal to ink and execute a substantial agreement.
The first of the five meetings begins on Tuesday (November 10) when PM Modi and President Xi participate in the eight-member Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, held virtually, that is being hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Both India and China are full-time SCO members.
In another couple of days, the two leaders are to take part in deliberations during the ASEAN summit from November 12-15.
Vietnam, the chair of the ten-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations this time has extended a special invite to India to attend the meet while China is part of the consultative group that brings together ASEAN with China, Japan, and South Korea.
On November 17, Modi and Xi may face each other at the five-member BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Summit that is being virtually hosted by Russia.
On November 21-22, the top leaders of the Group of Twenty (G20), a body comprising 20 of the world’s most important, industrialized and developing economies, will meet.
Both India and China are G20 members while this year the meet will be hosted by Saudi Arabia.
And finally, on November 30, Modi and Xi are set to face each other when they sit together for the SCO council of heads of government, an event that is being virtually hosted by India this time.
While there is a possibility that the two leaders may not directly interact with each other, but being present in the same event at the same time does present an opportunity.
Following the Wuhan ‘informal summit’ in 2018 when PM Modi and President Xi had a very close interaction, it was during the June 2019 SCO Summit at Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan), that Modi and Xi held a separate bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the main SCO meet where the former extended the invite for another ‘informal’ round.
It fructified in the ‘Mamallapuram informal meet’ in October 2019.
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