Opinion Singh and Xi: A Political Mismatch?
India media is always tempted to hype up the brief encounters between Indian prime ministers and leaders of other countries in multilateral conferences in distant lands.
India media is always tempted to hype up the brief encounters between Indian prime ministers and leaders of other countries in multilateral conferences in distant lands. Such meetings rarely extend beyond exchange of pleasantries and the signaling of mutual good will.
Reports from Durban say,the first meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the new Chinese President Xi Jinping on the margins of the BRICS summit went reasonably well.
But there is one structural problem though. Seen from outside,Dr. Singhs power is ebbing in Delhi. After nine years at the helm,the UPA government appears to have run out of steam. Xi,in contrast,has just emerged as the all-powerful leader of the Chinese Communist party.
The priority for Dr. Singh,then,is to build personal rapport with Xi and create a framework,which his successors can build on,for engaging the new leadership in Beijing that is very conscious of Chinas rapid rise in the international system.
Brief conversations such as the one Dr. Singh and Xi had in Durban are certainly useful in promoting familiarity between the top leaders and help ease communications between the two establishments.
These encounters are not meant to negotiate serious differences. They are used very rarely to sort out a pressing diplomatic issue or two.
With India and China participating in many annual summits the BRICS,East Asia Summit,and the G-20 the frequency of contact between the leaders of the two countries has dramatically increased in the last few years.
Dr. Singh has met the Chinese leaders (the recently retired President Hu Jintao and premier Wen Jiabao) more than twenty times in the last few years. This is more than all the meetings between Singhs predecessors in Delhi and the Chinese leadership.
The short but routine meetings between the two leaderships have removed some of the needless mystery surrounding Indias relationship with China,which rose out of insufficient contact between the two elites in the past.
Looking ahead,Delhi has its task cut out in maintaining the momentum of bilateral relations with Beijing while mitigating tensions and seizing new opportunities.
But Delhi will be taken seriously by a self-assured Xi,only if Dr. Singh demonstrates political purpose at home and the will to take some big decisions.
Otherwise,like the rest of the world leaders,Xi Jinping too will wait for regime change in Delhi.
(C. Raja Mohan is a Distinguished Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation,Delhi and a Contributing Editor of The Indian Express)
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