Modi-Xi meet repaired India-China relations, but its importance should not be overstated: experts

The meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin has “repaired” India-China relations, but its importance should not be “overstated”, veteran diplomats and commentators said at the launch of the book China: Indian Perspectives on China’s Politics, Economy, and Foreign Relations, a special publication by The Hindu Group, in New Delhi on Thursday (September 18, 2025).

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Delivering the keynote address, former National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon praised the initiative by The Hindu Group and said, “The book is an Indian view of China. It tells us how to look at China in the future. It tells you what you need to learn (about China).”

Speaking on the occasion, former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran said, “This book begins the conversation we need to understand China. It really is a great start. It is the most comprehensive survey of contemporary China in all aspects.”

Participating in a panel discussion moderated by The Hindu’s Diplomatic Affairs Editor Suhasini Haidar, former Indian Ambassador to China Ashok Kantha said, “We start repairing our China ties in early 2024. It begins to gain pace with PM Modi and President Xi Jinping’s meeting in Kazan. The meeting in Tianjin stabilises our ties in the troubled world right now.”

“Even now we know so little of the engagement with China. Disengagement with China at the border is one of the major issues that India is still facing today. Prime Minister Modi may have spoken about China a few times in the past, but we need to see what will happen,” he added.

In the same panel, Manoj Joshi, Distinguished Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, cautioned about the pace of India-China relations and said, “The Tianjin summit was a process in repairing the relationship broken in 2020. No one knows why China did what it did in 2020, but this meeting certainly propels the relationship to where it stands today. But let’s not overstate the value of the summit.”

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Mr. Joshi also highlighted the importance of Tibet and said, “Tibet is extremely important from Indian perspective. Tibet is a point of conversation between India and China. It is important to India from geographical and religious perspectives. Tibet opens up many conversations as to where India stands with China.”

Greater engagement

Former Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale cautioned about the internal developments in China. “Chinese President’s policies to control China and centralise power is strangling China’s economic growth,” he said.

Calling for greater engagement, he said, “If we do not visit China, we have very unreal view of China. China has grown very fast and it’s because the country is under an autocratic regime. It makes a lot of difference because in that sense India is a democracy.”

Introducing the volume, Varghese K. George, Resident Editor, The Hindu, spoke about the ongoing e-book series by The Hindu that covers various segments such as politics, technology, and the Constitution. “The extraordinary group of contributors brought together by Ananth Krishnan compelled us to bring out this issue (the book on China) in print,” he said.

Suresh Nambath, Editor, The Hindu, and Ananth Krishnan, Director, The Hindu Group Publishing Private Limited, were present.