Editorial | Xi Jinping’s visits to India and Nepal have helped build bridges
- The informal summit with Narendra Modi, in particular, is a good start as China tries to convince New Delhi to join the Belt and Road Initiative
Timing is everything where the trade war between China and the United States is concerned.
President Xi Jinping’s first overseas trip since the 70th anniversary celebrations of the People’s Republic of China on October 1 was to neighbours India and Nepal. The former still refuses to join the Belt and Road Initiative, a key strategy for Beijing to counter the slowing of the Chinese economy, and the latter is an avowed supporter.
Pushing the project is an understandable priority amid the uncertainty Washington has created.
The location of Xi’s informal summit with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the seaside resort of Mamallapuram, was significant: it was an integral part of ancient China’s silk trade route.
But India did not offer to join the belt and road, instead agreeing to focus on business while prudently managing differences. They established a high-level economic and trade dialogue mechanism between finance ministers to boost import and export volumes, bridge the huge trade deficit and increase mutual investment.
Proving the perceived success of the talks format pioneered in Wuhan last year, Modi will make a return visit to China in 2020, while confidence and trust-building efforts will continue through the resumption of dialogue over the nations’ disputed border, and cooperation in fighting terrorism.
