Now For The Hard Part

Judging the success of international summitry is tricky.

- Ananth Krishnan in Wuhan

After all, in diplomacy, everything tends to be ‘historic’ or ‘unprecedented’. But as the dust settles on the ‘informal’ India-China summit in ‘China’s happiest city’, there are reasons for some optimism.

The optics of Wuhan were powerful, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping both deserve credit for rescuing a relationship that was in free fall for much of last year, particularly during the 73-day stand-off in Doklam. By the very act of meeting, they arrested the slide. As Xi pointed out to Modi over tea, he wanted to send out a signal of “how important the relationship is” to him by hosting Modi in Wuhan and not Beijing. In five years as president, Xi told Modi—during eight hours of conversations over a leisurely museum tour, a lakeside walk and a boatride—he had only twice received foreign heads of state outside the capital. Both instances were for Modi.