China’s leader, Xi Jinping, welcomed India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi to China in a high-profile, potentially world-order-shifting visit.
Modi went to China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, which is one of a number of important world groups that do not include the West. Along with BRICS, an international organization comprising the governments of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and others, it is a key platform for both China and India to showcase their influence.
Modi arrived in China amid growing tensions with the United States. President Trump's administration officials appear to be progressively giving India a cold shoulder. This was Modi's first visit to China in seven years.
Prior to Modi’s journey to China, US President Donald Trump's trade adviser, Peter Navarro, had claimed that the war in Ukraine was linked to India because of India's trade ties to Russia. He even called it “Modi’s war.” India has long been friendly with Russia, since the Cold War, when India was part of the non-aligned movement and when the West backed Pakistan.
After 2001's 9/11 attacks, and the fact that Osama Bin Laden was found hiding in Pakistan near a key military base in Abbottabad, relations between the US and Pakistan have soured further. However, the Trump administration appears more keen on Islamabad than New Delhi.
A short conflict between India and Pakistan led to the US helping end hostilities. The White House wanted more credit than it apparently felt it got.
Currently, China is engaging in outreach efforts with India. The two countries had been at odds for decades.
China’s leader said the right choice is for the two economic behemoths to be friends. “Xi and Modi’s highly-anticipated meeting Sunday, on the sidelines of a regional summit in the eastern port city of Tianjin, comes as both nations face stiff US tariffs under President Donald Trump's global trade war, as well as Western scrutiny over their relationships with Russia as the war in Ukraine grinds on,” CNN noted.
China clearly sees this as another landmark along the road to a new world order. This is not the world order envisioned by then-US president George H.W. Bush, which emerged in 1990 following the decline of the Soviet Union.
Instead, this new order is comprised of non-Western countries and more authoritarian regimes. This isn’t the promised democratization of the 1990s, or a rules-based order led by the West and neo-liberalism. “The world today is swept by once-in-a-century transformations,” Xi told Modi. “The international situation is both fluid and chaotic,” he said.
“It is the right choice for both sides to be friends who have good neighbourly and amicable ties, partners who enable each other’s success, and to have the dragon and the elephant dance together,” Xi noted. “As long as they adhere to the overall direction of being partners rather than rivals … China-India relations can maintain stability and move forward over the long run.”
Many Western media outlets are looking at this with eyebrows raised. This could be a pivotal moment for the world. This is a kind of possible entente between India and China. Partners, not rivals, are the key words. Russian President Vladimir Putin was also at the SCO.
The BBC calls this “India’s foreign policy test.” The BBC report notes that Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar wrote in his 2020 book The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World, “this is a time for us to engage America, manage China, cultivate Europe, reassure Russia, bring Japan into play, draw neighbours in, extend the neighbourhood and expand traditional constituencies of support.”
India had played a significant role in global dynamics
It’s worth recalling that it also has key ties to the Middle East and Israel. Israel and India are strategic partners with key defense ties, particularly regarding Israeli defense companies operating in India alongside Indian defense giants as part of the 'Make in India' policy, which enables India to modernize its large army.
In addition, India is a close friend of the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and other countries that are close to Israel. Following the Abraham Accords, a movement toward something called I2U2 emerged, which brought together the heads of state of India, Israel, the UAE, and the United States for a virtual meeting in 2022.
Since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, there have been fewer meetings between Israel and the UAE, or initiatives linked to them, such as the Negev Forum or the N7 Initiative. The N7 Initiative is dedicated to advancing US interests via strengthening ties with key US partners in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, according to its own description.
A recent post by N7 on social media noted that “the US should prioritize IMEC this year and work with partners to launch a high-level meeting before assuming the G20 chairmanship in December.” IMEC, or the India-Middle East Corridor, is the route that links India to Europe via the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the eastern Mediterranean.
The evidence is clear that India is a key partner for the Middle East and for Israel. The question about US-India ties is also important. The US and India were supposed to become closer through a grouping called the Quad, which includes Australia, India, Japan, and the US. Now the Times of India is reporting that US President Donald Trump may not visit India for a Quad meeting this year.
The symbolism of Xi and Modi's meeting is important. Modi is in China, and US-India ties are on the rocks, potentially going off the rails. The new world order that is emerging awaits these shifts. In 2019, Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan emphasized the importance of a multipolar world at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Bishkek. It is now India and China now charting a new course in that world.