Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a commitment that he could receive $20 billion (Dh73.46 billion) in loans and investment pledges from China, but his relationship with Beijing and Chinese President Xi Jinping is also going to exact a heavy price from India.
Modi is fortunate that he has been given a huge mandate to administer the country, unchallenged, for the next five years. But he will have to take a very broad-based and creative approach in forging a new relationship with China and contend with the proactive approach of Xi who, like Modi, is going all out to establish his country’s presence in the region.
Many inferences can be drawn when the leaders of two of Asia’s biggest economies sit down to do business. There are numerous possibilities and an equal number of pitfalls given that the relationship between the two neighbours cannot be termed as cordial, thanks to multiple reasons.
First and foremost, while the forecast for Indo-China economic ties look promising, the same cannot be said of the long-standing border dispute between the two neighbours. The Chinese incursion into eastern Ladakh, while the two leaders were engaged in diplomatic parleys, is a case in point. The two nations could influence each other in many ways if the trust deficit is eliminated.
Closer to home, Modi will have to ensure that bureaucratic malfunctions and red-tape will have to be ironed out. Beijing will hold New Delhi to account if it reneges on commitments and does not prescribe to the necessary amount of due diligence for Chinese investment. It will also subject India to strict scrutiny over its relationships with countries that it sees as a threat to its spreading dominance across land, air and sea.
The best prescription, however, is communication. It shows that both parties are looking at the bigger picture and devising viable solutions along the way. It would also signify that the two leaders have their mutual interests at heart and are committed to taking an age-old relationship to the next level.
