Hemmed in by West, Xi Jinping hints piping down tension with India
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, August 23: BRICS Leaders’ Summit expectedly mirrored the India-hosted Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting in drumming rhetoric against the western powers, with China and Russia leading the charge of the hegemony by the US-led bloc in the world affairs. But Xi signaled in his remarks at the Summit that he may be leading his country to a climb down from the height of tension with India.
Xi’s assertions that the BRICS countries should forge political cooperation has come out as the most significant remark from the Summit in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “We should expand political and security cooperation,” remarked Xi, while stressing on peace and tranquility in the region.
The Chinese president further stated that “we need to tender good offices on hotspot issues pushing for political settlement and lowering the temperature”. This again is relevant in the context of India-China border tension. It may be noted that Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and Indian national security advisor Ajit Doval are engaged in an extended negotiation to work out de-escalation in the western sector of the line of actual control between the two countries. Xi pressed for regular meetings among the key officials, including foreign ministers, of the BRICS countries.
Five-member BRICS is currently gaining a growing interest as almost 21 countries want to join the block, with China pushing for the expansion of the group in furtherance to Beijing’s aim to seek diplomatic heft to counter G7, the group of seven most industrialized nations.
With Xi calling for political cooperation and defusing the hotspots within the region, China appears building on its strategy to first make a forward push and then thrust a protracted negotiation to push for status quo normalization. However, India may not allow China to hold on to the strategy amid growing domestic political interests in the border tension with China.
Equally significant is the suggestion emerging out from Xi’s remarks that China is now getting loner in the world affairs, visibly identified with Russia, which has been dealt with in detail in the first ever strategy paper brought out by Germany on the Communist nation. Ian Johnson, a China observer, said in an X post that the Communist country had never been as isolated as is the case now in the last 45 years. The Chinese foreign ministry in a statement had also previously claimed that there was a “Bali Consensus” with India in resolving the border tension. Xi’s remarks now further give credence that the political leadership of the two countries are working out mechanism for de-escalation without gaining enough public scrutiny.
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