As the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation convenes this week in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana, Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to use the forum to renew calls for a multipolar global order amid heightened tensions with Western nations.
But while Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet in another sign of deepening cooperation, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to skip the meeting, sending his foreign minister in his place. Modi’s absence is being seen in some corners as a bid to play down the significance of the summit amid New Delhi’s efforts to strike a delicate balance in its foreign policy.
India, which joined the group along with rival Pakistan in 2017, hosted the annual summit virtually last year, a move that was interpreted by many as India’s attempt to avoid direct interactions with China and Russia, both of which have strained relations with the West.
“A more likely cause could be due to India’s broader strategic realignment. It has been boosting its alignment with the West and weakening its relationship with the non-Western camp,” Zhang said. “This is especially apparent in India’s relations with the SCO, which is seen by the world as a non-Western political grouping largely influenced by China and Russia.”
Ranjan suggested that Modi may want to avoid “coming across” Xi at the SCO, as relations between their nations remain fraught since they last met on the sidelines of the Brics summit in South Africa last year.
Liu Zongyi, secretary general of the China and South Asia Centre at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, said India had little interest in improving relations with China, which were largely frozen because of their border dispute.
“[Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam] Jaishankar has made it clear that his priority will be to resolve border disputes with China … but China-India relations include many aspects, not just the border issues,” Liu said. “In this context, that the border issue cannot be completely resolved, we can totally still develop other relationships.”
1 Comment
Submission Statement:
As the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation convenes this week in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana, Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to use the forum to renew calls for a multipolar global order amid heightened tensions with Western nations.
But while Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet in another sign of deepening cooperation, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to skip the meeting, sending his foreign minister in his place. Modi’s absence is being seen in some corners as a bid to play down the significance of the summit amid New Delhi’s efforts to strike a delicate balance in its foreign policy.
India, which joined the group along with rival Pakistan in 2017, hosted the annual summit virtually last year, a move that was interpreted by many as India’s attempt to avoid direct interactions with China and Russia, both of which have strained relations with the West.
“A more likely cause could be due to India’s broader strategic realignment. It has been boosting its alignment with the West and weakening its relationship with the non-Western camp,” Zhang said. “This is especially apparent in India’s relations with the SCO, which is seen by the world as a non-Western political grouping largely influenced by China and Russia.”
Ranjan suggested that Modi may want to avoid “coming across” Xi at the SCO, as relations between their nations remain fraught since they last met on the sidelines of the Brics summit in South Africa last year.
Liu Zongyi, secretary general of the China and South Asia Centre at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, said India had little interest in improving relations with China, which were largely frozen because of their border dispute.
“[Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam] Jaishankar has made it clear that his priority will be to resolve border disputes with China … but China-India relations include many aspects, not just the border issues,” Liu said. “In this context, that the border issue cannot be completely resolved, we can totally still develop other relationships.”