Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday were expected to agree new security measures along their unsettled border during a summit, officials said, in an effort to smooth ties ruffled by differences over Kashmir.
The two are meeting in a seaside resort in southern India after weeks of jousting over India’s decision to revoke the special status of its part of the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir, angering archrival Pakistan and China, Islamabad’s ally.
Ahead of Xi’s arrival in Chennai, police detained Tibetan Youth Congress president Gonpo Dhondup and 11 Tibetan students in several locations, including at the airport and a highway leading to the summit venue.
“We want freedom,” shouted Dhondup, as he was wrestled away by six police officers in a video shared by the Tibetan Youth Congress.
He was pushed into a motorized rickshaw and taken away by police.
While Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile have been based in the northern hill town of Dharamsala for decades, India has been careful not to let Tibetans embarrass visiting Chinese leaders.
Indian officials say they expect China to respect its core concerns in the same way, including over the issue of Kashmir.
New Delhi this week said that changes to Kashmir’s status were an internal affair and there was no room for a third nation to be involved after Xi said he was watching the situation closely and assured Pakistan of Chinese support.
China has longstanding military ties with Pakistan, which has twice fought a war with India over Muslim-majority Kashmir.
Modi and Xi were aiming to move forward on confidence-building measures during the informal summit in Mamallapuram, a short distance from Chennai, an Indian source briefed on the discussions said.
India and China share a 3,500km border, over which they went to war in 1962. Its course remains unresolved, despite more than 20 rounds of talks.
The border has been largely peaceful, but there have been occasional standoffs between troops.
The measures on the table included more border trade, tourism and even joint military patrols to boost trust, the source said.
“Priority will be given to enhancing confidence-building measures and people-to-people exchanges,” a second government source said.
Modi was due to take Xi on a tour of the Shore Temple, dating back to the seventh and eighth centuries, before several hours of one-to-one talks designed as a free exchange of ideas on issues ranging from territorial disputes to India’s ballooning trade deficit with China and the question of allowing Chinese firm Huawei into India’s 5G telecom network.
“Xi will have an in-depth communication with Modi on issues that have overall, long-term and strategic significance on bilateral relations, set the tune and guide the direction for future development of the ties,” Chinese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Luo Zhaohui (羅照輝) was quoted as saying.
Xi was accompanied by Chinese State Councilor and Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅), while Modi’s team included Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval.
The two sides are hoping that Xi and Modi would further build their personal rapport established at the first such informal summit in Wuhan, China, last year.
“Since the Wuhan summit, we’ve seen some movement — the restoration of a number of dialogues, China giving India a little more market access, India toning down its rhetoric, but we’ve also seen enough evidence that key differences remain,” Brookings Institution senior fellow Tanvi Madan said, referring to China’s position on Kashmir.
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