Quote:The frequency of high-level interaction between India and China has perceptibly increased since the new government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi took over in late May. This cannot but be viewed as signaling the Modi government’s foreign-policy priority, although Beijing set the ball rolling with the extraordinary diplomatic move to depute China’s foreign minister Wang Yi to Delhi in early June in a manifest desire and sense of urgency to open lines of communication with the new Indian leadership.
This was followed by Modi’s meeting with President Xi Jinping in mid-July in Brazil on the sidelines of the BRICS summit. Now comes Wang’s second meeting with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, on Saturday on the sidelines of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ meetings on East Asia cooperation.
The Indian spokesman said briefly that yesterday’s meeting focused on the preparations for Xi’s expected visit to India next month. Meanwhile, Swaraj is due in China later this month to attend the annual trilateral Russia-India-China meet at FM level, which China is hosting. A dense Sino-Indian political and diplomatic calendar, indeed.

Quote:The Xinhua account of yesterday’s meeting at Nay Pyi Taw gives the sense that the Chinese side proposed the interaction with Swaraj with three aims in view, aside keeping up the momentum of high-level exchanges.
One, to relay Beijing’s satisfaction over the Modi-Xi meeting last month in Fortaleza, Brazil; second, to build up the agenda for Xi’s forthcoming visit to India; and, three, to highlight the expectations in Beijing regarding the trajectory of the Sino-Indian ties under Modi’s leadership.
Succinctly put, Beijing places great store for the deepening and expansion of China-India ties in the Modi era. It knows it is dealing with an Indian leader who knows China well, whose national priorities of development bear striking resemblance with China’s, and, most important, who can be trusted to steer India toward an independent foreign policy.
Obviously, Beijing sees great possibilities opening up for the first time to conclusively steer the relationship away from the shadow of the 1962 conflict and the bitter legacy it created. This comes out clearly in Wang’s remarks during yesterday’s meeting with Swaraj.
Wang said, “China and India, the two biggest developing countries who are neighbours, if join hands [sic] in cooperation, will make the world more balanced, secure, and stable.” Elsewhere, Wang and Swaraj reportedly shared the thought that “countries in the region should hold dear the hard-won stability of Asia and prevent it from disruption and damage.” (Xinhua

Quote:No doubt, Beijing prioritizes that Modi’s independent foreign policy precludes the India’s dalliance with the US rebalance strategy in Asia. Alongside, a more accommodative Chinese attitude is discernible towards India that aims at carrying India along as a partner, by underscoring the two countries’ shared concerns and interests as emerging powers in the new world order and international system.
The Chinese receptiveness to the Indian demarche that the new BRICS Development Bank should give equal voting rights to the member countries regardless of their equity share; Xi’s invitation to Modi to the APEC summit in Shanghai in November; Xi’s invitation to Modi that India should become a founder member of the proposed Asian Investment Development Bank; Xi’s suggestion that India should play a bigger role in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization [SCO]; and, of course, the shift in the Chinese attitude toward India’s SCO membership — these are indicative of the winds of change as anticipated by Beijing as per the new calculus.
Against this backdrop, the Indian stance on the issues of the Far East, especially South China Sea, naturally becomes of great interest to China, where all signs are that Beijing has gained the upper hand on the political and diplomatic arena vis-a-vis the US, and is increasingly able to moderate the ASEAN stance.

Quote:Therefore, it is just as well that the official spokesman’s press briefing yesterday signaled sensitivity on the part of Delhi on this issue which is almost a litmus test for Beijing — “China is an important country, it is a neighbour with which we have very cordial relations, it is a neighbour we are building our relationship with, and it is only fair to understand their viewpoint… India is not a party to the dispute in the South China Sea. That is number one. Number two is that we feel that this dispute should be resolved between those who are parties to this in a peaceful manner, and it should also be in accordance with international law. As regards us [India], we have interest in ensuring that there is free right of navigation and access to natural resources in the region. That is broadly our overarching approach to that issue.” (MEA)
The fact of the matter is that the headlong plunge into a new level of military involvement in the Middle East (Iraq) and Eurasia (Ukraine) incapacitates the US from advancing the rebalance strategy in Asia and China is taking advantage of it. Wang’s meeting with the US secretary of state John Kerry in Myanmar yesterday gives a flavor of the Chinese confidence that the Barack Obama administration has its hands full during the remaining period of the presidency (until end-2016) and comes under compulsion to “respect China’s legitimate right

Quote:This shift in the co-relation of forces in the Asia-Pacific knocks the bottom out of the facile, dreamy assumptions regarding the power dynamic in the region made by Indian pundits in what they fancifully christened the ‘Indo-Pacific’. Put differently, a new realism in Delhi will be timely and is most certainly in India’s long term interests. Quite obviously, the ASEAN-China relations are poised to enter a new era of partnership and India also will need to reset the compass of its ‘Look East’ policies in tune with the emergent geopolitical realities by eschewing the notions of ‘great game’.
Indeed, it needs a strong leadership to take the kind of leap of faith in resetting relations with China and this is where Beijing is probably right in its estimation that Modi’s leadership makes all the difference to the future vista of Sino-Indian cooperation. The real challenge for Indian diplomacy lies in eliciting from China an optimal response by way of that country showing equal sensitivity to our aspirations, vital interests and core concerns. That effort on our part will have to be sustained and should be in the direction of cascading engagement not only on the bilateral plane but alo regionally and internationally. The outcome may be incremental, but the current trends of the past 70 days are encouraging.