How India plans to engage with China in Modi 3.0

The PM and Xi will be in Astana for the SCO leaders’ summit early next month. Signals on ties over the last several weeks have been nuanced, and an Australian recalibration suggests a way for realistic engagement.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with former Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and other members of a Congressional delegation in New Delhi on Thursday. The delegation had met the Dalai Lama earlier. (PTI)

It is four years this week since the Galwan clashes of June 15, 2020 that rocked India-China ties, and the border standoff is yet to be resolved. About 50,000 to 60,000 troops are still deployed on each side of the border. Managing the relationship with China is the most pressing challenge for the Narendra Modi government in its third term.

The Prime Minister is likely to be in the same place at the same time as China’s President Xi Jinping during the leaders’ summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, on July 3-4. It remains to be seen if a meeting takes place between the two leaders, and whether it leads to a breakthrough.