What is the issue?
- Indian PM Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping had an informal meet recently in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
- China's assent to going for an informal summit with India needs a deeper analysis in the prevailing geo-political scenario.
What was China's possible motive?
- India by itself may not be a serious problem for China.
- But China regards India as a potential ally of the US and Japan against China.
- The border is in control of the Chinese if they wish to exercise it.
- It's because they are on higher slopes and have more troops there.
- But arresting India’s potential drift towards the US and its allies is in China's interest.
- Being informal, no documentary evidence was required for any agreements of great significance.
- So an informal summit was a low-cost, high-benefit option for China.
What do post summit statements suggest?
- Statements made by Xi Jinping after the summit, clearly indicate the above motives.
- Strategic perspective - He emphasised that India and China should look at their relations from a strategic perspective.
- This is clearly in mention of India's increasingly closer ties with the US.
- Further, compared to India, China takes Japan more seriously.
- There is possibility for a clash in the East China and South China Seas.
- Japan and India, by themselves would not worry China.
- But the combined might of the US and Japan would be a serious blow to the Chinese.
- Economy - Economic development also appeared in the post-summit statements.
- The Chinese do not think they need India for its development.
- However, deeper economic relations with India could be viewed as a means to an end.
- A means to ensure that India does not drift off into a US-Japan-India strategic triangle.
- Civilisation - Xi also stressed on a deeper and wider exchange between the two great civilisations.
- Generally, to talk about India’s civilisation is a good diplomacy.
How does it benefit India?
- Until the 2019 elections, the government in power would prefer to avoid any border threats.
- This is particularly in relation with problems with Pakistan.
- India used the summit as a kind of assurance from the Chinese.
- It is to ensure that China, as Pakistan’s benefactor, did not interfere on the border.
What does the summit mean for Pakistan?
- Post-summit statements suggested that India and China should pursue “a joint economic project” in Afghanistan.
- India cannot take up its Afghanistan projects all alone.
- This would invite attacks from the Taliban, supported by Pakistani military.
- But the Taliban would not attack joint China-India projects.
- This is because the Pakistanis would not allow that to happen.
- Pakistan is too indebted to China, and China has its own interests in Pakistan.
- China is building a port there, and there is a China-Pakistan economic corridor, serving Chinese interests.
Source: Indian Express
Quick Fact
Wuhan
- Wuhan is the capital city of Hubei Province in central China.
- It has been a major industrial city for a long time.
- The 1911 Republican revolution started there.
- An informal summit would normally take place in a place other than Beijing or Shanghai, and Wuhan was a natural choice.
