LONDON ¨C For all the pomp and circumstance, the only thing that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi¡¯s recent visit to China will be remembered for will be his plain-speaking. And this is by no means a small achievement.
For years, Indian political leaders have gone to China and said what the Chinese wanted to hear. Modi changed all that when he openly ¡°stressed the need for China to reconsider its approach on some of the issues that hold us back from realizing full potential of our partnership¡± and ¡°suggested that China should take a strategic and long-term view of our relations.¡±
In his speech at Tsinghua University, Modi went beyond the rhetorical flourishes of Sino-Indian cooperation and pointed out the need to resolve the border dispute and in the interim, clarify the Line of Actual Control, to ¡°ensure that our relationships with other countries do not become a source of concern for each other.¡± This is a significant shift in Indian traditional defensiveness vis-a-vis China and should put the relationship on a firmer footing.
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