That it took 10 months to organise the first bilateral summit between US President Joe Biden and the Chinese leader Xi Jinping says a lot about the uneasy state of relations between Washington and Beijing. That there were few concrete outcomes from the summit points to the continuing instability of the ties between the two great powers. This uncertainty matters for the entire world, given their enormous economic and geopolitical weight. It is of special concern for India, whose relations with China have rapidly deteriorated in recent years. This, in turn, has accelerated the strategic partnership between Delhi and Washington. Many in the Indian establishment worry that any relaxation of tensions between US and China would undermine India’s position in relation to China.
India must carefully monitor the state of US-China relations. But there is no reason for Delhi to panic at Washington’s engagement with Beijing. China is far too important for any major power to ignore it. India has continued its engagement with China even after the PLA’s aggression in Ladakh in 2020. Just last week, Delhi was coordinating its position at the COP26 with Beijing. All of India’s Asian and European partners have huge stakes in a productive economic relationship with China. Engagement among major powers, including China, is a fact of international life today. What has changed in the last few years is the deepening structural contradiction between the US and China. That contradiction is unlikely to be resolved any time soon.
This editorial first appeared in the print edition on November 19, 2021 under the title ‘Textbook diplomacy’.
