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Ankit Panda

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party have won a powerful mandate in India’s 2019 general elections.
As India forms a new government and Modi begins a second five-year term, one of the fundamental foreign policy challenges that will remain high on the agenda in New Delhi is the nature of the bilateral relationship with China.
Modi’s second term begins in a turbulent global context, with no sign that either the United States or China will unilaterally capitulate in the bilateral competition that exists between them.
During Modi’s first term from 2014-2019, India unambiguously recognised that its strategic interests in Asia would be best served by betting on the US.




But beyond the great power rivalry context, Modi will carry forward a complex bilateral agenda with China into his second term.
The border dispute between the two countries remains as intractable as ever and concerns in Delhi about China’s big strategic and economic bet on Pakistan are growing.
In the days after India’s election results were announced, Chinese vice-president Wang Qishan conducted a rare visit to Pakistan, offering security assurances to ensure the integrity of Beijing’s multibillion-dollar investments in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the crown jewel of the Belt and Road Initiative.
Meanwhile, one of the constant sources of anxiety during Modi’s first term came from the Indian region’s changing leadership temperament.
Countries like Sri Lanka and the Maldives recalibrated their relationships with China following changes in leadership that had little to do with Indian policy activism, while others, like Nepal, have moved toward a new normal, recognising that they no longer need to overwhelmingly rely on India.

India’s neighbourhood will no doubt remain a top priority in the second Modi term.
As difficult as the relationship with China remains, we can expect Modi’s second term to mostly yield continuity in New Delhi’s approach toward Beijing, which has in the past decade maintained a balance between cooperation – including economic cooperation – and strategic competition.
How China and India can overcome their Himalayan differences
Even as India has long had concerns and misgivings about China’s rise – especially as Beijing’s presence becomes an undeniably reality around New Delhi’s strategic neighbourhood –, it has little to gain from taking a confrontational posture towards China.
While Modi has shown himself willing to assert India’s interests in the neighbourhood vis-à-vis China, his first term showed a continuing interest in expanding New Delhi’s stakes in sustaining a regional status quo favourable to India.
The question that will underlie planning for the China relationship is whether Modi – and Indian prime ministers before him – miscalculated the equilibrium point in the competition-cooperation dynamic
In particular, India expanded its naval and diplomatic engagement with like-minded diplomatic partners in the Indo-Pacific region – all while leaving the premise of balancing a rising China an implicit one.
The fundamental question that will underlie India’s policy planning for the relationship with China is whether Modi – and Indian prime ministers before him – had miscalculated the equilibrium point in the competition-cooperation dynamic with China.
Modi-Xi summit seen as sign of bonhomie but also strategic ambitions
Did India go too far to be accommodating and cooperating, emboldening China in its region?
A little over a year ago, Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a carefully manicured bilateral show of reconciliation after a difficult year in 2017.

During a summit in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, which several analysts described as a “reset” moment, Modi and Xi sought to convey that the competitive-cooperative dynamic in India-China relations had regained its equilibrium after the summer 2017 stand-off between their armed forces over a once-obscure piece of disputed territory along India’s border with Bhutan.
An important moment to watch for later this year will be a second such informal summit between Modi and Xi. The Indian prime minister will host the Chinese leader for a second meeting later this year, according to Indian foreign ministry officials.
What Modi’s re-election means for a secular, democratic India
Absent a serious bilateral crisis in the intervening months, that meeting will allow for the two sides to set the terms of their engagement going forward.
There isn’t an easy answer to the set of challenges the new Indian government will face in the complex, multifaceted bilateral relationship with China.
But make no mistake: China will remain at the top of India’s foreign policy agenda for years to come.
Ankit Panda is a senior editor at The Diplomat.


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Will India and China’s new border deal lead to long-term peace in the disputed Himalayas?

China-India relations

The complex issues with China that India’s Narendra Modi carries into his second term as prime minister

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party won a clear mandate from voters in recent general elections. Photo: EPA-EFE

In this picture taken on May 26, 2019, Indian supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) gesture as they participate in the rally of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP National President Amit Shah in Ahmedabad. (Photo by SAM PANTHAKY / AFP)

FILE - In this Sept. 17, 2014, file photo, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, right, welcomes Chinese President Xi Jinping, upon his arrival at a hotel in Ahmadabad, India. Modi won a second term in office in May, 2019, by presenting a muscular image to voters by ordering an air strike inside Pakistan in response to a suicide attack on Indian paramilitary forces in troubled Kashmir ahead of national elections. India faces challenge from China as it is continuing to encircle India, carry on with the belt and road initiative and befriend its longtime rival Pakistan. But their relations have shown a thaw with Beijing recently deciding against blocking the designation of Pakistan-based Masood Azhar as a global terrorist. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki, File)

Modi’s re-election shows India has abandoned diversity and embraced Hindu-majority rule

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during a rally in Mumbai on April 26. Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party increased its already substantial majority in the recently completed elections, winning 303 out of 545 seats in the lower house of parliament. Photo: Bloomberg

epa07555392 A Kashmiri Muslim woman recites Koran on the second day of fasting month of Ramadan inside a shrine in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir, 08 May 2019. Muslims around the world celebrate the holy month of Ramadan by praying during the night time and abstaining from eating, drinking, and sexual acts during the period between sunrise and sunset. Ramadan is the ninth month in the Islamic calendar and it is believed that the revelation of the first verse in Koran was during its last 10 nights. EPA-EFE/FAROOQ KHAN

Modi-Xi summit seen as sign of bonhomie but also strategic ambitions of New Delhi

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomes Chinese President Xi Jinping in Ahmedabad, India, in 2014. Photo: AP

(180610) -- QINGDAO, June 10, 2018 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping (1st R, front) and other leaders of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states attend a restricted session of the 18th SCO summit in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, June 10, 2018. Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday chaired a restricted session of the 18th SCO summit in east China's coastal city of Qingdao. (Xinhua/Ding Lin) (lmm)

Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi attend the group photo session during the BRICS Summit at the Xiamen International Conference and Exhibition Center in Xiamen, southeastern China's Fujian Province on September 4, 2017. - Xi opened the annual summit of BRICS leaders that already has been upstaged by North Korea's latest nuclear weapons provocation. (Photo by Kenzaburo FUKUHARA / POOL / AFP)

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There are no easy answers to the challenges the new Indian government will face in its multifaceted China relationship, Ankit Panda writes


There are no easy answers to the challenges the new Indian government will face in its multifaceted relationship with China, Ankit Panda writes.


Narendra Modi

Belt and Road Initiative

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Xi Jinping

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China-India border dispute

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


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Opinion | The complex issues with China that India’s Narendra Modi carries into his second term as prime minister

There are no easy answers to the challenges the new Indian government will face in its multifaceted China relationship, Ankit Panda writes