The recent thaw in Sino-India relations following a bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Modi and China President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the XVI BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit held in Kazan (Russia) last month, is an overdue and welcome development that augurs well for both neighbour nations to smoke the peace pipe. This rapprochement which comes four years after the bloody clash in the Pangong Valley in May 2020, imposes some pressure on Beijing and New Delhi to resume serious parleys at highest levels of government.

As has often been advanced on this page, a lasting and durable peace between the two world’s most populous neighbouring countries is a matter of highest priority, not only for our countries, but also for a stable global order. The issue of unsettled border lines in Aksai Chin in the north-west and Tibet in the north-east has been hanging fire since China declared itself a communist republic in 1949, two years after India attained independence from almost two centuries of British rule.

Foot-dragging on the issue of negotiating a settled border by the Nehru administration in Delhi resulted in the 1962 limited (32 days) Sino-India border war in which India was roundly thrashed. China’s PLA could have annexed Assam and large areas of the north-east but voluntarily withdrew north of Tawang. Since then, Sino-India harmony and cultural exchanges that had endured for millennia have been in a shambles.

Paradoxically, trade ties between our two countries have remained strong and are growing stronger. China (PRC) is India’s largest foreign trade partner. Sino-India foreign trade aggregated $118.39 billion in 2023-24 with the trade balance heavily skewed in favour of PRC. Imports from China were valued at $101 billion whereas our exports were valued at $16.65 billion. Despite curbs imposed on direct Chinese investment in selective goods and services, Sino-Indian bilateral trade is booming. It’s no secret that the electronics, telecom, computer, pharmaceutical and chemicals industries are heavily dependent upon imports from China.

In the circumstances with PRC having emerged as a global hub of sophisticated manufactures and intermediates required by Indian industry, military posturing and muscle flexing along our 4,000-km border is not in the national interest. It’s important to acknowledge that Sino-India border boundaries were drawn by British Empire officials with notorious reputation for forcibly imposing arbitrary border lines all over the world. Post-independence, India’s Congress party leadership made a major judgemental error by insisting upon the sanctity of Sino-India border lines unilaterally drawn by British imperialists.

It’s pertinent to note that since 1949 when China declared itself an independent republic, PRC has negotiated mutually accepted boundaries with six countries, including Pakistan. Therefore, this is an opportune moment to drop the talk-but-don’t-negotiate border policy and enter into bona fide parleys with our neighbour nation and redraw our boundary lines in a genuine spirit of give and take, so that government focus is on national development instead of arms and armament.