India-China relations | The new equation

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed Chinese president Xi Jinping with a firm handshake at Bharat Mandapam in Delhi on September 12, his greeting carried more weight than just diplomatic courtesy. On the sidelines of the 18th BRICS Summit, the two leaders were testing whether India and China could build what officials on both sides have cautiously started calling ‘a new equation’. It was Xi’s first visit to India in nearly seven years. Also, the first since the deadliest India-China border confrontation in over four decades erupted on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in 2020, dealing a severe blow to bilateral ties.