Treading with caution

The atmosphere was not appropriate for a meeting between Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi at G20 Summit

On Thursday, the Press Trust of India’s (PTI) Beijing correspondent quoted officials of the Chinese foreign ministry saying that the atmosphere was not appropriate for a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G20 Summit in Hamburg. While the Ministry of External Affairs said no such meeting had been sought, the government’s media minders suggested to journalists that the news report from Beijing had misquoted Chinese officials. There was, however, no clarification from the Chinese side on the PTI report. News channels were also reached out to request them not to play up the stand-off between the Indian and Chinese militaries near Sikkim as the matter was sensitive. Such caution is rarely exhibited with Pakistan.