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Keegan Elmer

China will be keen to woo India away from a US alliance against Beijing when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Chinese President Xi Jinping for informal talks in Wuhan this week, diplomatic observers said.
The two days of talks starting on Friday come as China faces threats of US trade action and India seeks to put its economic development on track ahead of an election next year.
It also comes nearly a year after military personnel from both countries faced off for 73 days over a contested border in the Doklam Plateau in the Himalayas.

Border tensions remain, with the Indian Air Force recently completing its biggest combat exercise along its frontiers with China and Pakistan. 
On Monday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi also assured his Pakistani counterpart Khawaja Asif that China would continue to support Islamabad and major infrastructure projects destined for disputed parts of Kashmir.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit China for one-on-one summit with Xi Jinping
But observers said Modi and Xi had strong reasons to find common ground. 
Srikanth Kondapalli, a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, said Beijing was concerned about India’s growing cooperation with the United States, including last year’s announcement to revive the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, talks that also include officials from Australia and Japan. 
“Whenever China feels that US-India relations are improving, China does some kind of signalling, and calls for ‘multipolarity’ to counter the United States’ ‘unipolar’ position,” he said.

Renmin University international relations professor Shi Yinhong said the talks were part of a broader effort to improve bilateral relations.
“This is part of the ongoing reconciliation in bilateral ties between China and India since August when the two countries agreed to end the stand-off at Doklam,” Shi said. 
Modi and Xi last met in September and are expected to do so again on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting in Qingdao in June.
China and India border tensions flare up again ahead of Indian Prime Minister Modi’s visit
This time, though, Beijing is scrambling for ways to deal with Washington’s threats of hefty tariffs on Chinese products and bans on US exports to Chinese technology company ZTE.
Du Youkang, director of Fudan University’s Pakistan Study Centre, said the main goal of the meeting was to ensure a stable future partnership between China and India, particularly amid the uncertainty of trade and diplomatic ties with Washington.
Mohan Guruswamy, a distinguished fellow at the United Service Institution of India in New Delhi, said China “needs friends badly”.
“China has much to gain with the development of economic relations with India”, especially from a growing export economy, he said.
But Madhav Nalapat, a professor of geopolitics at Manipal University, said Modi also needed to gain support at home ahead of next year’s election.
“Modi is facing an election in 2019 and is looking to strengthen his legacy. For both, a warming after nearly six decades of frost between Delhi and Beijing would represent a historic achievement that would benefit both countries substantially,” he said.
Additional reporting by Laura Zhou


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Doklam region CHINA Tibet Sikkim Nepal India Bhutan Bangladesh SCMP

epa06676555 Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pauses during his bilateral meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May at 10 Downing Street in London, Britain, 18 April 2018. May is hosting leaders of the Commonwealth countries in London this week. EPA-EFE/SIMON DAWSON / POOL

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet in Wuhan for two days of informal talks. Photo: AP

China and India border tensions flare up again ahead of Indian Prime Minister Modi’s visit

Tensions on the border between China and India have flared up at regular intervals. Photo: AFP 

(FILES) This file photograph taken on October 21, 2012 shows an Indian soldier keeping watch at Bumla Pass on the India-China border in Arunachal Pradesh. New Delhi and Beijing are locked in a tense impasse over a strategic Himalayan plateau where hundreds of Indian and Chinese soldiers have been squaring off against each other for more than three months. India approved a $650 million purchase of six attack helicopters from US aviation giant Boeing, officials said August 17, 2017, as it boosts its military might amid the border tensions with China and Pakistan. / AFP PHOTO / BIJU BORO

FILE PHOTO: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (L) and Chinese President Xi Jinping leave after a group picture during BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Summit in Benaulim, in the western state of Goa, India, October 16, 2016. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui/File photo

FILE PHOTO: A man walks inside a conference room used for meetings between military commanders of China and India, at the Indian side of the Indo-China border at Bumla, in the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, November 11, 2009. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/File Photo

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