Putin’s Push Brings Modi And Xi Together

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s India visit on Saturday (Sept 12) and his bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi acquired significance beyond the BRICS summit, coming at a time when Russian President Vladimir Putin has been actively pushing for a thaw between the two Asian powers. Putin’s private message to Modi had been unequivocal: India must move beyond the bitterness over Chinese incursions and anti-India posturing that had strained ties for the present, notwithstanding the personal equation Modi had painstakingly built with Putin over the years—first as Gujarat Chief Minister and subsequently as Prime Minister. The Russian President’s intervention assumes greater significance against the backdrop of Moscow’s own strategic calculations. With Russia seeking stronger relations with both India and China, Putin has an obvious interest in preventing the two major Asian powers from remaining locked in confrontation. There is also an intriguing economic dimension to this triangular relationship. Chinese shipping vessels have been deployed to carry Russian crude to India, underscoring how geopolitical compulsions can override the otherwise adversarial India-China relationship. For New Delhi, Russian energy remains strategically important; for Beijing, facilitating the movement of Russian crude to the Indian market demonstrates the complexities of its relationship with both Moscow and New Delhi. For Modi, however, forgiving Beijing is hardly a question of forgetting. The relationship carries the baggage of the border dispute and China’s incursions, even as economic and geopolitical realities demand engagement. Xi’s visit—the first to India in seven years—therefore provides an opportunity to reopen a channel that had effectively narrowed after the military tensions on the Line of Actual Control. For Putin, a Modi-Xi rapprochement strengthens the larger Eurasian equation. For Modi, it offers strategic space to engage Beijing without surrendering India’s position on its territorial concerns. The question now is whether Putin’s diplomatic push can translate into a durable Modi-Xi thaw?