Moving the needle

Mamallapuram keeps China-India relations on an even keel

In terms of pre-summit optics, high expectations of a significant reset in India-China relations at the Xi Jinping-Narendra Modi “informal” summit in Mamallapuram, the first such after the 2018 Wuhan meeting, would have been overdone. Tensions over Kashmir, military exercises in Arunachal Pradesh just ahead of the visit, the Belt and Road Initiative, and Xi Jinping bookending the India summit with visits from client state Pakistan and to Nepal suggested that neither country was about to yield on issues perceived as vital to their respective national interests. It is, however, possible to spot three signs in the two days of