The Modi-Xi meeting at the BRICS summit may have revived the language of normalisation, but it has done little to resolve the fundamental distrust along the LAC. Behind the diplomatic warmth lie an unresolved boundary, altered ground realities and continuing concerns over China’s grey-zone pressure

After the Trump-Xi spectacular three-day meeting, with some notable outcomes last week in Washington, the short 45-minute interaction between Modi and Xi on the sidelines of the BRICS summit this month produced little except ‘feel-good’. The US and China do not share borders but have matching tactical and strategic deterrence. India and China, in contrast, have been playing a charade over the normalisation of relations and an early harvest of a boundary settlement when the ground situation is just the opposite.

Following the Chinese ingress in Ladakh (2020), the failed Yangtse grab (2022) and the most recent Taksing encroachment in July 2026, denied by the Government, India is conspicuously missing the deterrent to PLA salami-slicing across the LAC. Delhi maintains a one-way internal dialogue on the Northern border, insisting that any public or parliamentary discussion will undermine soldiers’ morale and national security. Last month, Delhi celebrated its BRICS moment with an agreed joint statement and a brief bilateral between President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which marked the unbridgeable gaps in bilateral relations while indulging in mutual self-delusion. Normalisation has largely been dictated by China due to altered Indo-US geopolitics.

For Delhi, it is imperative to hedge against a second active front as Beijing continues propping up Rawalpindi as its ‘secondary deterrent’ against Delhi. India has allowed dilution of its primary deterrent through the Agniveer scheme and shallow defence investment, justified by Modi’s rhetoric: “This is not an era of war” and “endless wars........

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