New Delhi: China has apparently conveyed to India that it “has not changed its position on the Kashmir issue” and that it wants the issue to be resolved in a peaceful manner bilaterally, between India and Pakistan. With both sides being in touch with each other over the past few days amid hectic diplomatic parleys, the decks have finally been cleared for holding the second informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping at Mahabalipuram (also known as Mamallapuram) near Chennai on October 11-12, with an official announcement by India expected by Tuesday. Due to the delay in announcing the dates and venue of the meeting, there has been considerable speculation, especially in the past week, about whether the meeting was to take place or not.
Sino-Indian have been strained following Beijing’s support to Pakistan at the UN recently on the Kashmir issue after India abrogated Article 370 and bifurcated J&K state in early August.
India was unhappy with China for backing Pakistan at the UNGA and for pushing for informal discussions on the Kashmir issue by member-countries of the UN Security Council a few weeks ago.
China was upset over the Indian Army holding exercises in Arunachal Pradesh which Beijing regards as its territory.
As reported earlier by this newspaper, October 11 will see a walk-through by the two leaders on the beach of Mahabalipuram where the famed ancient temple is located. The main informal summit will take place on October 12. The two leaders are expected to discuss a range of issues in the informal yet luxurious setting by the seaside, and the summit is expected to once again put bilateral ties on an upward trajectory following the past two months of tensions in Sino-Indian ties.
To that extent, it could accomplish what the first informal summit — held last year in the central Chinese industrial city of Wuhan — set out to do, after the two neighbours were locked in a military face-off at Doklam in Bhutanese territory.
Nevertheless, Sino-Indian ties remain vulnerable to fluctuation given the poor state of Indo-Pak ties, and the fact that the all-weather friendship between Islamabad and Beijing goes back several decades.
Sino-Pak ties have been invigorated in recent times with Beijing’s interest in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that provides China the fastest road connectivity to the Arabian Sea.
