International

Meeting between PM Modi and President Xi Jinping as ‘significant’ as the one between then Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and Rajiv Gandhi?

Much of the commentary in state-controlled Chinese media today and over the last couple of days has been unusually positive about the upcoming Narendra Modi-Xi Jinping meet marking it as a landmark occasion with the same potential as the Rajiv Gandhi-Deng Xiaoping meeting of 1988.

The similarity is indeed there. The most obvious one being that Modi too, unfortunately, delayed his initiative until the final lap of his 5-year term as prime minister. Also, both Modi and Rajiv Gandhi acted in the aftermath of standoffs at the border, which were flaunted as ‘muscularity’.

A China daily said that the meeting between the two countries’ premiers as a major chance to lift the ties between China and India as it is “one of the most consequential for the 21st century.”

The good part is that Modi has a strategic vision. China is one country he knows well, having visited it several times before becoming prime minister. Without any doubt, Beijing too regards Modi as a forceful Indian leader who is a keen reformer himself and is devoted to transforming the relationship with China.

Never before in the history of the relationship has there been such an intense flow of back-to-back high-level visits as during the Modi era.

In 1988, Rajiv became the first Indian PM to visit China since 1954; his visit, like Modi’s now post-Doklam, came immediately after a period of prolonged border skirmishes. That visit, as a source said, “normalized Sino-Indian relations” after which the two nations “maintained 30 years of stable development”.

Dear Readers,
As an independent media platform, we do not take advertisements from governments and corporate houses. It is you, our readers, who have supported us on our journey to do honest and unbiased journalism. Please contribute, so that we can continue to do the same in future.

Related posts