Has #BRICS really become an alternative to the G7? Does it really represent the voice of the global south? Did Russia actually broker a rapprochement between India and China? What did the bilateral between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping actually signify? How serious is the Sino-Indian agreement on the Line of Actual Control (LAC)?
I had the opportunity to discuss these issues with noted Sinologist Prof. Francesco Sisci, Director of the Appia Institute.
Some background…
The Sino-Indian standoff started in 2020 with China massing troops on the Indo-China Line of Actual Control (LAC), the de-facto border between the two countries, with skirmishes between the armed forces since. Due to this development Modi and Xi Jinping have not had a bilateral meeting in the past 4 years, except unplanned interactions at the G20 in Bali (2022) and the BRICS summit in Brasilia(2023).
The resolution of this conflict is a temporary victory for both leaders as well as for Russia, weeks before a volatile election in the US. The Sino-Russian friendship without limits which started just before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, had firmly pushed India into the US-sphere with the US India partnership quickly rising up to heights never seen before. For China, the Indo-China border is its achilles heel in the Indo-Pacific. Its long hard terrain is difficult to patrol and Aksai Chin, the part of Ladakh disputed by both countries, is an essential part of the Gilgit Baltistan highway which is China’s gateway into the Indian Ocean.
