Asia no longer scripted by one superpower: Report

Beijing, Sep 2 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasised peace and stability along the border with China during his meeting with the Chinese President Xi Jinping in Tianjin on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, in a setting where every gesture was carefully measured, a report cited on Tuesday.

It said that yet sixty thousand soldiers remain deployed, disengaged but alert, underscoring the enduring lack of mutual trust between India and China.

"The Himalayan border — unsettled and disputed — has continued to cast its long shadow on this relationship of 2.8 billion people: the bitter conflict of 1962, the clashes of 1967, Tulung-La in 1975, Sumdorong Chu in 1986, Doklam in 2017, Galwan in 2020, and again in the subliminal distrust that still lingers under what is being sold as the new thaw in relations since October 2024," wrote former Indian Foreign Secretary and distinguished Indian Foreign Service officer Nirupama Rao in India Narrative.

"Pilgrimages to Kailash-Manasarovar have resumed after a five-year hiatus. Direct flights are set to resume, and visa facilitation will be more streamlined. Meanwhile, India runs a deficit of $100 billion in imports of Chinese goods, exposing, inter alia, the harsh reality of our manufacturing (and pharmaceutical) industry’s dependence on Chinese inputs — thus defining the paradoxes of detente and dependency held in uneasy balance," the expert added.

According to the report, in Tianjin, both China and India have committed to a partnership rather than rivalry in carefully crafted diplomacy.

"The bow is drawn, the aim uncertain. More than being the elephant, as some refer to it, India is the archer standing on a thin iceberg. The slightest tremor can shift the balance. India must be prepared," Rao asserted.

The report stressed that Asia's future rests on whether its giants — India and China can move beyond old disputes to shape a multipolar tomorrow guided by prudence, patience, and purpose.

According to the report, in Tianjin, Russian President Vladimir Putin pictured alongside PM Modi and Xi at the SCO Summit projected a troika of proximity bringing India, China, and Russia together in a single tableau.

The cameras captured the symbolic gestures of handshakes, shared laughter, and moments of ease. The report highlighted that while Putin condemned Western "bullying", Xi stressed the importance of multipolarity, and PM Modi reaffirmed India's strategic autonomy, raised concerns about terrorism, and advocated a multipolar Asia.

"This stagecraft was not an accident. It reminded the world that Asia is no longer scripted by one superpower, that India will neither vanish into China's embrace nor become a pawn of Washington, that Russia still breathes relevance even under sanctions. The imagery was powerful: Modi, Xi, Putin — three leaders, three trajectories, converging briefly in one frame," the former Foreign Secretary opined.

--IANS

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