Devirupa Mitra 
New Delhi: After a five-year hiatus marked by clashes between and the loss of lives among Indian and Chinese soldiers in the Himalayan heights, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met and agreed to restart Special Representative talks, as they set the stage for resolving the eastern Ladakh military stand-off and normalising relations.
In his opening remarks at the talks held on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Russia, Modi noted that they were meeting after five years and welcomed the agreement reached to resolve the border issues.
“Maintaining peace and tranquillity over the border should remain our priority, and mutual trust, mutual respect and mutual sensitivity should remain the basis of our relationship. I am confident that we will hold talks with an open heart and our discussions would be constructive,” he said.
Earlier, Xi also referred to the lengthy gap. “Both the people in our two countries and the international community are paying great attention to our meeting,” he remarked.
Xi underlined that it was “important for both sides to have more communication and cooperation, properly handle differences and disagreements, and to facilitate each other’s pursuit of development aspirations”.
“It’s also important for both sides to shoulder our international responsibility, set an example for boosting the strength and unity of developing countries, and to contribute to promoting multipolarisation and democracy in international relations,” he added.
India was the first to announce on Monday that a patrolling agreement had been reached regarding the last two remaining friction points in eastern Ladakh. The following day, said that it “commends the progress” made by the two countries recently on “resolutions on issues concerning the border area following close communication through diplomatic and military channels.”
India’s readout of today’s bilateral talks added that the two leaders agreed that the special representatives on the India-China boundary question will meet at an “early date”.
Their mandate as described in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA)’s press release was to “oversee the management of peace and tranquility in border areas and to explore a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable solution to the boundary question.”
The press release also said that dialogue mechanisms – at the level of foreign ministers and other officials – will also be utilised to “stabilise and rebuild bilateral relations”.
It stated that a “stable, predictable and amicable” relation between India and China will not only have a positive impact geo-politically, but also contribute to “a multi-polar Asia and a multi-polar world”.
“The leaders underlined the need to progress bilateral relations from a strategic and long-term perspective, enhance strategic communication and explore cooperation to address developmental challenges,” it said.
The Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson’s readout, posted on her X account, had striking differences.
The Indian press release had mentioned the “agreement for complete disengagement and resolution of issues that arose in 2020 in the India-China border areas”.
Echoing China’s foreign ministry on Tuesday, the Chinese spokesperson noted simply that the “the two leaders commended the important progress the two sides had recently made through intensive communication on resolving the relevant issues in the border areas”.
The same talking points had been also posted by the Chinese ambassador. Neither of the Chinese officials used the term “agreement”, which was used specifically by India.
On the next steps, China said that they “agreed to make good use of the Special Representatives mechanism on the China-India boundary question, ensure peace and tranquillity in the border areas and find a fair and reasonable settlement”.
There was also mention of bringing “the relationship back to sound and steady development at an early date”.
The additional point mentioned by China was that the two countries had agreed to to strengthen communication at multilateral fora. In contrast to the Indian readout, the Chinese statement referred backed multipolarity solely in a global context.
At a media briefing before Modi’s departure from Russia, Indian foreign secretary Vikram Misri said that the “the process to restore normal relations and bring them back to a regular path has begun”.
“What I was saying about ‘the restoration of peace and tranquility in border areas creating space for returning towards the path of normalisation’, my point was that the recent agreement has opened the way. Both sides need to walk on this path,” he said.
Asked whether China could be trusted, he replied, “As for the question of trust, with the process that both sides will move forward with, we hope that trust will increase further in the future.”
The last time Modi and Xi met in either of their countries was in October 2019, against the backdrop of the rock-cut temples of Mamallapuram, for the second India-China Informal Summit.
During that meeting, the strategic economic dialogue between the two nations was elevated to a ‘high-level economic and trade dialogue’.
The following year, 2020, was set to commemorate 70 years of diplomatic relations, with 70 events planned, including a symbolic ship voyage.
They again met on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Brasilia in November 2019, a meeting that Modi asserted “add[ed] new vigour to India-China relations”. A month later, the special representatives met in New Delhi.
Within a couple of months, the world was in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, in the icy heights of eastern Ladakh, Chinese troops were amassing at the border with India, pushing their patrols far beyond their usual pattern.
While localised confrontation began in the first quarter of 2020, the then-army chief had said they were not a point of major alarm. Two weeks later, defence minister Rajnath Singh said that a “sizeable number of Chinese people have also come” to the border.
Despite these reverberations, it was a shock when the Indian army announced on June 16 that 20 Indian soldiers had died in a “violent face-off” with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley. It took China another eight months to acknowledge the death of four Chinese soldiers.
The fatal Galwan clash froze political ties but also triggered diplomatic and military talks between India and China. These talks led to de-escalation at four points – the north and south banks of Pangong Tso, Gogra-Hots Springs and PP 15. The last one took place in 2022.
As part of de-escalation, these friction points saw the creation of buffer zones, which included areas where India had previously conducted patrolling.
For the past two years, the situation in the remaining areas of Depsang and Demchok have been difficult to resolve. The stalemate continues, with China claiming that the Depsang Plains and Demchok are legacy issues, while India insists they are part of the ongoing stand-off.
Also read: Why Mutual Trust Will Elude India, China Despite Patrolling ‘Deal’, Modi-Xi Meeting
In August 2023, a renewed effort was made to resolve these disputes through intensified military-level talks, but no breakthrough was achieved.
Around that time, there was speculation about a thaw in relations, possibly paving the way for Xi’s visit ahead of New Delhi hosting the G-20 summit. However, the momentum faded when the Chinese president chose to skip the event in the Indian capital.
Still, the signs of a forthcoming change were already emerging.
In November 2023, India relaxed visa approvals for Chinese professionals whose expertise is required by vendors under the production-linked incentive scheme. China finalised the name of its new ambassador, Xu Feihong, who finally arrived in New Delhi to fill a vacancy that lasted for 18 months.
Before the general elections, the Indian prime minister had said in an interview that relations with China were “important and significant” and hoped that the multiple rounds of talks would “restore and sustain peace and tranquility in our border”.
But post-election signals had not been as promising for India-China rapprochement. When Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te congratulated Modi on X for his electoral victory, Modi publicly thanked him. Shortly after, a bipartisan US Congressional delegation visited India to meet with the Dalai Lama.
While meetings between US politicians and the Dalai Lama on Indian soil were not new, their public pronouncements raised eyebrows. China publicly protested both incidents, which took place in the early weeks of Modi’s third term.
Modi also skipped the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit that month, where he had been widely expected to meet Xi. Their last encounter had been at the BRICS dinner in South Africa in August of the previous year.
Moreover, six weeks after the elections, Xi was still the only world leader who had not extended congratulations to Modi.
According to think tank Global Trade Research Initiative, while political relations between India and China deteriorated, trade between the two countries remained relatively unaffected as trade is driven by private business interests, with minimal direct government involvement.
“This ballooning trade imbalance has left India with a cumulative trade deficit of over $334 billion over the past five years, reflecting a growing reliance on Chinese goods,” the think tank said.
But, the state of political ties was certainly a barrier to investment from Chinese companies. The economic imperatives for a return to normal India-China relations was clearly weighing heavily on a section of the Indian government.
The Indian corporate sector was already chomping at the bit. The invitation extended to the Chinese ambassador for the wedding of the youngest son of India’s leading billionaire industrialist garnered attention from various circles.
The finance ministry’s Economic Survey 2023-24 stated that allowing foreign direct investment from China could help boost India’s exports to the west.
“The questions that India faces are: (a) Is it possible to plug India into the global supply chain without plugging itself into the China supply chain? and (b) what is the right balance between importing goods and importing capital from China?,” the survey said.
The engagement visibly gathered momentum from early July, when external affairs minister S. Jaishankar met with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi at the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Astana. Just three weeks later, they reconvened in Vientiane during the ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting.
The foreign office-led Working Mechanism for Consultation & Coordination on India-China Border Affairs held back-to-back meetings on July 31 and August 30. On September 12, the National Security Adviser met with Wang.
A week later, Chinese ambassador Xu stated that India-China relations had reached a “crucial stage of improvement and development” and an increased frequency of high-level meetings. The Chinese defence ministry added, on September 26, that discussions had helped both sides reduce differences and build consensus.