PM Modi-Xi Jinping To Meet At SCO Summit In Samarkand, Border Issues Expected To Be On Table

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to meet at the SCO summit on September 16th in Samarkand, Uzbekistan's capital.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping

Source : File Photo

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping are likely to meet at the SCO summit scheduled to be held on September 16th, in Samarkand, the capital of Uzbekistan. In around 34 months, the two leaders of the two most populated countries in the world will meet.

Modi-Jinping Meeting Significance – Possibility Of Discussion On Border Tensions:  

Prior to this meeting, China may have agreed to withdraw troops from certain areas in an effort to ease the border tensions that have existed in eastern Ladakh for approximately 28 months. However, the Modi-Jinping meeting will almost certainly address the issue of border friction. Following China's forceful barrier in Eastern Ladakh and the Galvan-like incident, the militaries of the two countries engaged in a 28-month-long standoff in several regions. Furthermore, the Chinese roadblock in the Depsang region has remained intact.

China has not reduced its military presence in the Ladakh region until the scenario in April 2020. Of course, in such a situation, India has maintained a full defensive wall and military presence. Border tensions would undoubtedly be a major topic of discussion if Modi and Jinping met in Samarkand after the unofficial summit in Mamallapuram in October 2019.

What Could Be The Discourse Of The Dialogue: 

India is also interested in pursuing it. India has repeatedly stated that improved India-China relations are contingent on peace and stability along the Line of Actual Control.

It is impossible to rule out the possibility that their meeting in Samarkand will be as pleasant as their previous encounters. Throughout this discussion, both leaders' body language will speak volumes about the tone and outcome.

The two leaders last spoke on November 13, 2019, at the BRICS meeting in Brasilia, Brazil. The two leaders met for the second time less than a month and a half after their informal summit in Mamallapuram, India. Having this level of closeness and trust between the two from 2014 to 2019—a span of only five years—is a major deal in and of itself, according to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The India-China border dispute refers to the ongoing territorial conflict between India and China over the sovereignty of two relatively large and several smaller regions. Since 2013, border issues have resurfaced. The Doklam plateau was the site of a stalemate between the Indian and Chinese armies over Bhutan's disputed border. In the Galwan Valley conflict in 2020, 20 Indian soldiers and an unspecified number of Chinese soldiers were killed.