Can a 20-second Modi-Xi handshake at the BRICS summit break years of India-China ice? — SkimNews
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- Modi and Xi held a bilateral meeting at the BRICS summit in New Delhi on Sept 12-13, featuring a 20-second handshake and smiles via interpreters — Xi's first visit to India in nearly seven years — with both sides calling for "a strategic and long-term perspective" on ties.
- India and China have been rebuilding relations since 2024 after the fatal June 2020 border clash, resuming border talks, restarting direct flights, and easing some Chinese investment restrictions — though India recently rejected a proposal by Alipay (Ant Group) to link to its instant digital payments system on national security grounds.
- China overtook the US as India's largest trading partner in the financial year ending March 2026, with bilateral trade reaching US$151.1 billion, even as India's trade deficit with Beijing widened to US$112.16 billion.
- The Independent reported on Sept 12, the day of the Modi-Xi meeting, that satellite images showed China advancing into contested Arunachal Pradesh territory — a reminder that border friction persists beneath the diplomatic warmth.
- Experts Alka Acharya and Dylan Loh warned that high-level summits must be backed by institutionalised follow-up — military-to-military dialogue, routine communication, and working groups — or agreements "quickly degrade," with Loh calling the meeting "a further step in pragmatic stability."
- Jabin T. Jacob of Shiv Nadar University said China views India as a rival "that needs to be managed" in a "G-2 world" — and would leverage India's US trade tensions, not offer technology transfers — while Lin Minwang of Fudan University noted India's "distrust and suspicion" toward China is unusually intense even by regional standards.
Why it matters: India needs Chinese intermediate goods to scale manufacturing, while Beijing gains leverage from New Delhi's trade tensions with Trump — but a $112 billion deficit favoring Beijing, unresolved border incursions in Arunachal, and China's military backing for Pakistan during the May 2025 conflict keep structural mistrust alive. Analysts warn the optics-heavy reset will degrade quickly without the military-to-military dialogue and working-group follow-through that experts say is still missing.
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