The other G20 meeting: can Xi and Modi solve the China-India border paradox?

The eyes of the world this week will be on Buenos Aires, and the much-awaited meeting between President Donald Trump of the United States and President Xi Jinping of China.

Whether their meeting at the G20 will help reduce hostilities – if not avert a brewing cold war – will have an impact that reaches far beyond the US-China relationship.

Indeed, the US-China trade war has already prompted a recalibration in many relationships. China, unnerved by Trump’s pressure on trade, has already pursued unlikely rapprochements with countries such as India and Japan, both of which have reciprocated to hedge against the unpredictability of Trump’s Washington.

Trump will certainly cast a shadow on Xi’s other engagement at the G20 with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India. It is no accident that this will, remarkably, be their fourth meeting in just half a year, underlining the warmth in relations since the first-of-its-kind “informal summit” in Wuhan in April, when Xi broke with protocol and hosted Modi for two days outside Beijing, the first time he had done so for any foreign leader.