PM Modi meets Xi Jinping in Tianjin to restore India, China ties

India Today

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held bilateral talks in Tianjin, aiming to reset strained India-China relations amid US tariffs under Donald Trump that have unsettled Washington’s ties with both capitals. The meeting opened with a firm handshake, sending a subtle signal to the US while marking the next phase of reconciliation between the two Asian powers, following their initial engagement in Kazan, Russia, last year.

Transcript

00:00First set of visuals are in Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in that bilateral,

00:07the crucial bilateral. Let's, you know, look at these visuals, Gita, and speak to our viewers

00:15as to a lot of expectations from this. But it's also carrying forward what happened in Kazan,

00:21because there was a bilateral on the sidelines as well. And that crucial handshake, Gita,

00:27which are high on optics, certainly, but very, very interesting.

00:32Well, absolutely. What we normally look at when Prime Minister Modi is abroad on a bilateral visit

00:37and if things are absolutely hunky-dory between the two countries is the big hug.

00:43Now, that big hug is missing. It's a formal handshake. And now we're looking at opening remarks,

00:49which will come to us in a bit, the audio of the opening remarks.

00:53But that's a very formal interaction that we're looking at between President Xi Jinping

01:00and Prime Minister Modi, unlike the kind of meetings, the kind of bonhomie that we used to see in the past.

01:08So this is a very serious one, Maria. This is a meeting that really is not about resets.

01:14It's about how to take things forward, how to move forward from a very difficult relationship

01:20or very difficult time in this relationship. And that's what we're looking at, the two leaders talking business.

01:28Dr. Jai Shankar, who's actually for the first time not there in the room, if you can see,

01:33he's been flanked by National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri.

01:40There is the interpreter, ambassador of India to China. We also have area experts, including Deepak Mittal, for SEO.

01:53All of them right there. But the conversation is serious. It is about how to take things forward.

02:00I'm being told that Dr. Jai Shankar is not keeping too well as the reason why he's not there in the room.

02:07But again, this is the first time for a man who is a China hand, who knows China, who knows America,

02:12has served in Beijing, has served in Washington, D.C.

02:15This indeed was a really crucial meeting between the two leaders.

02:21Serious handshake, no smile when it comes to Xi Jinping, Prime Minister Modi being the cordial person that he is

02:28when he meets people. But no hugs this time around.

02:32Mariah shows that while Dr. Jai Shankar said that if disengagement does not happen completely at the border,

02:40it is not going to be business as usual, we'll have to see whether India is going to walk the talk on

02:44what it says when it means it is not business as usual.

02:49Yes. So this is cautious reproach, Mariah, as is being said now, you know, perhaps some baby steps

02:55being taken between India and China and that crucial, you know, bilateral, which has just happened.

03:02It's ongoing. We will get the opening comments from both the heads of states in just a bit.

03:08But this this summit's agenda includes significant cooperation and coordination in security,

03:15digital economy, green initiatives, AI technologies.

03:18And of course, the sense is that because of U.S. protectionism, can India and China do some kind of revisit

03:28to to their equation in terms of trade?

03:34We look we are looking at these images of complete shift from what we have seen in the past.

03:40Multiple diplomacies that has happened between the two leaders.

03:43The dialogue which has happened between Prime Minister Modi and Xi Jinping.

03:50Your first big takeaway, Gorda, when you look at the first images emerge from Tianjin.

04:00So, you know, even even in Kazan in Russia on the sidelines of BRICS, you know, there was no warm and hug there.

04:08You know, there cannot there could can't be a warm hug after what happened in Galwan 2020.

04:14And the relationship underwent a reset post 2020 completely.

04:19Now there's a there's a cautious effort to bring the relationship on an even keel.

04:24Kazan brought, you know, that that movement forward.

04:27That's when the disengagement at the last two friction points took place.

04:30Now you're taking that initiative even forward.

04:33You're taking it forward on the economic front.

04:35You're taking it forward on on the disengagement or de-escalation front of working out on a mechanism for a wider solution.

04:43Because Wang Yi's conversation with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval in Delhi gave more indications of how serious India and China are

04:51on moving forward on that leg of the relationship where India is also talking about demarcation.

04:57What will the road of the demarcation be remains to be worked out.

05:00But that is where that strategic direction will come from the leadership.

05:04It's a solutions oriented approach is what sources are telling India today for the simple reason that China.

05:10Wang Yi had indicated that the friction that took place was not in the interest of the people of India and China.

05:16However, there are no great expectations from this visit.

05:20This is essentially an SEO multilateral visit and the Prime Minister is engaging with the host country or the president of the host country.

05:29And when it becomes Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi, it becomes something which is really, really big.

05:34And especially after Kazan and especially after the tensions with President Trump.

05:38But will there be a massive headline takeaway?

05:41Sources have been downplaying it all along.

05:44They say that this engagement naturally between heads of state and government is very important.

05:50That engagement must continue to happen.

05:52But it's the work on ground.

05:55With China, it's not what China says, but what China does on ground.

05:58That's the real indication of where the relationship is moving forward.

06:02Everyone speaks very sweetly.

06:04It's only if it's followed by sweet action on ground.

06:07Do you know that things are moving in the right direction, Maria?

06:10Absolutely.

06:11Absolutely.

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