Finally, some light in the China-India tunnel

After four years of acrimony, the two Asian giants move to mend fences.

- Ravi Velloor

More than four years after an ugly brawl in the high Himalayas saw the first loss of lives in hostile action along the Sino-Indian boundary in decades - setting ties back hugely - Asia's twin giants seem to have found some sort of compromise on troop placements that could help ease the stand-off.

There's a long road ahead before full normalisation of ties.

So many meetings on non-border-related issues have been frozen for so long, and need to be revived. Therefore, neither President Xi Jinping nor Prime Minister Narendra Modi are likely to begin carving each other's names on trees for some time to come.

But it does seem now that a proper summit that has eluded them since 2019 - including Mr Xi's failure to show up at a Modi-hosted Group of 20 leaders' gathering in New Delhi in 2023 is possibly around the corner.

That meeting could take place as soon as late October, if both leaders attend a Brics summit to be hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Kazan.

Given the tightening Sino-Russian ties, Mr Xi's presence in the south-western Russian city is a near certainty.

If Mr Modi appears, and does not ask his foreign minister to stand in for him, that would heighten the chances of a meeting that could lay the path for more progress.

But it's wise to temper expectations, meanwhile.

Even now, the two sides aren't fully aligned in their positions.

On Sept 14, China said troops had disengaged at four spots in eastern Ladakh, including Galwan Valley that saw the brutal clash in mid-2020 when soldiers on both sides under stern orders to keep their guns pointing to the ground - used staves, clubs covered with barbed wire, and other crude weapons on the snowy heights. India, on the other hand, says the issues are "75 per cent resolved".

HIMALAYAN THAW

To recap, both sides lost lives in the Galwan incident.