China comes up in talks between Modi, Kishida

This is the first comment from New Delhi after Beijing’s outreach, made by Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla who was briefing on the discussions between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japan counterpart Fumio Kishida.

Briefing reporters, Shringla said, “In the discussions, the issue of China did come up and both countries did inform each other of their perspectives. He (PM Modi) did inform the Japanese side about the situation in Ladakh, the attempts at massing of troops, attempts at multiple transgressions.”

He said, “We also made it clear that until and unless we had a resolution of the issues involved with the peace and tranquility in the border areas, we could not consider the relationship to be business as usual. And, normalcy in the relationship would depend on progress on the said issues.”

“The Japanese Prime Minister also briefed our Prime Minister on Japan’s own perspective, vis-a-vis, the East and South China Seas,” Shringla said.

The joint statement said that they highlighted their commitment to working in tandem towards a peaceful, stable and prosperous world, based on a rules-based order that respects sovereignty and territorial integrity of nations.

The Prime Ministers appreciated the significant progress made in security and defence cooperation and reaffirmed their desire to further strengthen it.

The Prime Ministers also emphasized that India and Japan, as two leading powers in the Indo-Pacific region, had a “shared interest in the safety and security of the maritime domain, freedom of navigation and overflight, unimpeded lawful commerce and peaceful resolution of disputes with full respect for legal and diplomatic processes in accordance with the international law”.

It also said that they reaffirmed their determination to continue prioritising the role of international law, particularly the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and facilitate collaboration, including in maritime security, to meet challenges against the rules-based maritime order in the East and South China Seas.

Two years into the military standoff along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh, The Indian Express had reported that Beijing had reached out to New Delhi to revive bilateral dialogue and set the stage for the BRICS summit in China later this year.

Beijing has proposed a series of events to kickstart the dialogue, proposing a visit by Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi to India as early as this month. This is to be followed by a reciprocal visit by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

But China’s ultimate and clear objective is to host Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the in-person BRICS summit which will be attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin as well. China, which also holds the chair for the RIC (Russia-India-China) trilateral this year, could also host the leaders’ summit on the sidelines of the BRICS summit.

In the current circumstances, it is politically difficult for Modi to attend an in-person meeting with Xi — when the border standoff has still not been resolved. Their last face-to-face meeting was in Brazil for the BRICS summit in November 2019. In October 2019, Xi had visited India for an informal summit in Mahabalipuram.

The last BRICS summit to take place in China was in Xiamen in September 2017 which was attended by Modi. In fact, the Doklam border standoff was resolved after two-and-half months, just before the BRICS summit.

A potential window of opportunity to unlock the standoff exists: the 14th BRICS summit in 2022 is going to be hosted by China. Just like Doklam border stand-off was resolved days before the summit in September 2017 in Xiamen, officials feel there is a lever to be used.