00:00well india's high stakes diplomatic balancing act is going to be in the spotlight in the coming days
00:04with chinese president xi jinping heading to new delhi this is going to be his first trip to the
00:08country in nearly seven years back in 2019 he met with prime minister modi in chanai for a series
00:14of unofficial dialogues before ties then broke down over border confrontations that turned
00:19deadly the following year for more insights on this we are joined by antara gosal singh's china
00:25fellow at the strategic studies program at the observer research foundation antara thanks so
00:31much for joining us today been a while since these two leaders have held a summit the meeting to happen
00:37tomorrow what are the key items on the agenda here what's the threshold for a successful meeting
00:46so much for inviting me for today's discussion it is a pleasure to be here today so um see the
00:54bricks is again uh you know the bricks agenda you know it's all over there and
01:00bricks payment is going to be a very important issue that is going to be talked about
01:07apart from that uh you know as you mentioned um prime minister uh president xi jinping will be
01:12visiting india after a very very long time um and china-india relationship is making a gradual
01:19uh you know gradual normalization is setting in in china-india relation that is also going to be
01:26uh very very important very very significant so all eyes are on both bricks and uh china-india uh
01:32meeting right now plenty of issues here plenty of uh intractable issues as well i mean we had that
01:40deadly border dispute a few years ago china is supplying pakistan india's regional rival with weapons uh
01:48india is aligned with the united states on tech and defense i mean how do you even start to build
01:53trust against a backdrop like this uh well uh you know um uh there have been some positive momentum
02:03in the in the uh border uh on the border front uh uh lately um we had this 25th round
02:11of talks between
02:12the spatial representatives of the border uh negotiation for uh china and india and both of
02:18both the representatives they uh you know agreed to a eight point consensus which is very very rare
02:25you know and um there are now uh you know more hotlines uh between both the countries more meeting
02:33points for army commanders new guard rails have been put uh to prevent uh you know 2020 border
02:40clash like situation uh also uh there are two new expert teams that have uh coming to being uh who
02:48will
02:48be looking at the um you know overall uh border solution as a whole and also be looking at the
02:56day-to-day
02:56you know border interaction the border patrolling and border interaction that happens uh so um you know
03:03that is i think a very positive development and apart from that uh there are also you know cooperation
03:09across the border which is being discussed like in the form of border trade border exchanges border
03:14pilgrimage and also trans border data sharing between both the countries so i think these are
03:22very important progress that has been made in recent months but having said that the business ties
03:29between india and china it continue to remain problematic there are reports that chinese authorities
03:35have been uh you know uh telling companies chinese companies not to uh sell critical technology
03:43or infrastructure equipment uh to india including uh port equipment solar panels um mobile manufacturing
03:52equipments uh in a way like it's very clear uh to the indian side that china is using um india's
03:59trade
04:00and technology dependence uh on china as a leverage um against india and which is a very very big concern
04:08in india right now and this um this issue is definitely going to figure very high uh when uh you
04:15know we
04:16have these uh bilaterals when you've got two big heavyweight nations like india and china really struggling to
04:23find agreements on some key issues to what degree does that hamper the effectiveness of bricks as a
04:31larger group in terms of working on food and energy security and supply chains
04:38that's true bricks uh is now a very large group and uh there are many challenges that has um come
04:45up
04:45recently i mean even now like you know there are reports in indian media that um uh you know it's
04:53where it's becoming very very difficult to reach a consensus uh given you know we have iran and we
04:58also have uae in bricks so um now it has become you know very very difficult to reach consensus within
05:05bricks um so that's definitely uh going to be a concern how to have a joint statement if at all
05:12we will
05:13have a joint statement at the end of the uh break summit yeah i mean also in attendance of vladimir
05:19putin
05:20and obviously narendra modi xi jinping both uh trying to compete for russian oil at the moment
05:26how do you see that tension playing out uh well yes you're right there have been uh you know reports
05:34about um competition between india and china on russian oil um the current reports uh mentioned that
05:43um india's uh import of russian crude oil has fell to around 2.1 million per barrel uh in august
05:502026
05:51from 2.7 to 2.8 million per barrel uh last month uh one of the reasons uh is understood
05:58to be there
05:59are many reasons for that but one of the reason is supposed to be stronger competition from china
06:03uh the u.s restriction of iranian oil is pushing the chinese refiners uh to go for uh russian barrels
06:13and that is creating concern for the um indian side but india's position has been made clear uh many
06:21times by the indian government that india will buy uh oil from anyone who offers lowest price um india's
06:30purchases are all based on market prices availability and national interest and that is what is uh
06:36primarily what india is sticking to right now to the outside observer it might look like india's in
06:42a very difficult position you know trying to balance the deals with russia uh defense and tech
06:47arrangements with the united states tension with china but you know the country does have a long
06:51history of non-alignment doesn't it in many respects is this a natural position for narendra modi to be in
06:59uh that's true uh india's foreign policy you know um it was it has been the historic doctrine of
07:06non-alignment not taking sides not uh you know taking part in the competition between the competing
07:11superpowers um so that has been there uh but then there we do see a shift in strategy and now
07:19it is
07:19more pragmatic strategy of multi-alignment uh in the contemporary multipolar world uh you know uh while
07:27the uh traditional non-alignment was about staying away from uh great power politics but the multi-alignment
07:33is about engaging more actively uh with various um you know powers uh and building up issue-based
07:41partnership with multiple uh global powers uh but what remains unchanged in all these is uh you know
07:49india's quest for strategic autonomy and uh sovereign decision making so that remains constant
07:57uh throughout throughout though though the strategy uh seemed to have evolved over the years
08:01you
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