Modi promotes India’s interests by getting close – but not too close – to both China and the US

Narendra Modi is probably the most articulate Indian prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru. On his nation’s relationship with China, he expressed a vision of “making one plus one, 11” and going “from inches to miles”. At the recent Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, his keynote speech carefully blended vision and rhetoric. His connection between a lion nation and a Lion City, and description of Singapore as a springboard to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, could not be sweeter for the host.

But more important was what Modi didn’t say, particularly in relation to China. He avoided the word “Quad”, describing the grouping of the United States, India, Japan and Australia that is widely perceived as a counterbalance to rising China’s presence in the Indo-Pacific.

Nor did he comment on America’s renaming of the US Pacific Command as the Indo-Pacific Command a few days ago, as if nothing had happened. Yes, he did mention the “Indo-Pacific” quite a few times, but not as a strategy, rather, only as a “natural region”.

The Wuhan summit between President Xi Jinping and Modi in April may prove to be the turning point in China-India relations, for the better. Ironically, it was the Doklam face-off in 2017 that provided a chance to open what both described as a “new chapter”. And Modi could only be happy to concur with Xi that both countries should be good neighbours and good friends.