Himalayan stand-off makes it an awkward G-20 for Xi, Modi

Bloomberg

Things might have been a little awkward when Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi saw each other on the sidelines of the Group of 20 meeting in Germany.
Far from the plush leaders events in Hamburg, China and India are facing the resurgence of a decades-long dispute over a remote area of the Himalayas. The interruption of summits by such tensions is a regular event, but both sides are now invoking memories of a 1962 border war in which Maoist China defeated newly-independent India.
While the latest flareup is likely to be resolved diplomatically, it adds to an increasingly fraught relationship between the nuclear powers as they jostle for influence in South Asia. India’s fast-growing economy is fueling its ambitions and ties to the west, while Beijing is asserting territorial claims in the East China Sea, South China Sea and remote Himalayan passes.
Xi and Modi addressed an informal meeting on Friday of leaders of the BRICS nations, which was held alongside the G-20 summit. There were no plans for a direct sit down.
Both leaders told the BRICS gathering that member countries needed to remain committed to an open global economy and fighting climate change. They did not mention the acrimonious border conflict.
“It has to be seen as part of a larger pattern, where they are becoming assertive, and they’re getting into this habit of enforcing their claims that are contested, and sometimes imagined, disregarding the views of others,” said Ashok Kantha, a former Indian ambassador to China and head of the Institute for Chinese Studies in New Delhi.