Differences need not preclude cooperation

India and China can take the opportunity of the BRICS Summit to set a good example

In 2025, at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Tianjin Summit, I accompanied the United Nations secretary-general in my capacity as UN resident coordinator in China. Amid the choreography of such gatherings, one moment stayed with me: I watched my own Prime Minister Narendra Modi shake hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

It lasted a few seconds. To me it felt long overdue.

At the 26th SCO Bishkek Summit in September, the two leaders shook hands again. Commentators called it symbolic — maybe. But between neighbors who have spent years talking past one another, that symbolism is a meaningful decision for diplomacy.

I write this as an Indian born in Chinatown, Kolkata, India, who spent decades in the UN, and who has come to regard Beijing as home. That makes me impatient with the narrative that India and China are condemned to rivalry.

History says otherwise. And history is longer than our recent memories.

From roughly the first century of the common era until about 1800, India and China were the two great civilizational poles of the world and, for most of that period, partners rather than adversaries, together accounting for close to half of global economic output. Buddhism traveled from the Gangetic Plain to the Yellow River, reshaping Chinese thought and art.

The two civilizations were, for 1,800 years, each other's teachers and customers.

What broke that was not Asian. It was the colonial chapter that followed: Empires redrew their economies to serve distant capitals, replaced exchange with extraction, and left newly independent states poor, partitioned and preoccupied with survival. The two neighbors who had known each other for two millennia lost sight of one another for two centuries.

India and China have been estranged for the shortest, most recent chapter of a very long story. It would be fatalistic to treat that chapter as the whole book.

As India is soon to host the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi, it is worth being clear about what this platform is for.

BRICS should not reproduce the divisions of the existing order. Its promise lies in showing what a more representative, effective multilateralism can deliver — bringing together countries with different political systems and interests. BRICS is one of the few tables where such countries still sit down together.

In a time of grave geopolitical upheaval and interlocking crises with multilateralism adrift, for India and China specifically, BRICS offers something that the bilateral channel cannot easily provide: a setting where they work on shared problems alongside others. Four areas deserve priority.

First, development finance. The Global South needs trillions of dollars for infrastructure, energy transition, health and education. The New Development Bank can mobilize far more of that capital, working with national development banks and private investors.

Second, technology. Artificial intelligence will reorganize economies and societies, and its benefits will not distribute equitably without deliberate cooperation. India's strengths in digital infrastructure and software, combined with China's manufacturing and AI capabilities, could do more than any other pairing on Earth to spread responsible, affordable technology.

Third, climate and sustainable development. No global energy transition succeeds without India and China. Cooperation on renewables, electric mobility and green finance would accelerate progress far beyond our borders.

Last, voice and governance. Many multilateral institutions including the UN still reflect the world of 1945. Reform must remain central — but it should strengthen global institutions, not create parallel systems that force countries to choose sides.

Nearly 30 years in the UN — in South Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Sudan, Bosnia, Kenya and China — taught me two things: Political differences can swallow a relationship whole, and open channels of communication make settlement possible. I have seen both, where the cost of getting it wrong was counted in lives.

India and China will not agree on everything. Differences over the boundary, trade and regional alignments are real and must be addressed honestly. But mature relationships are defined by the capacity to manage disagreement without letting it consume everything both sides need.

The signs are encouraging. High-level exchanges have resumed, and the special representatives' talks have produced practical understandings on border management. China has offered its support to India's BRICS presidency.

These are governmental steps, and they matter. But strategic trust is built through repeated human contact, not treaties alone. BRICS has already grown into a wider network — including a Business Council, academic exchanges and youth initiatives — and more is needed: joint research, professional exchanges and sustained Track 1.5 and Track 2 dialogue that keeps working when official relations go quiet.

In my current role as the CEO of Global Neighbors, a Vienna-based think tank, I see this at close range. Platforms of this kind build trust, generate ideas that governments can later adopt, and keep a line of communication open when formal ones are strained. It is unglamorous but indispensable work.

When leaders gather in New Delhi, they have a chance to send a message larger than any communique: Emerging powers can demand a greater voice in global affairs while accepting greater responsibility for the common good.

India and China, as the two strong pillars of Global South solidarity, carry a particular share of that responsibility. If the world's two most populous countries, home to nearly 3 billion people altogether, can manage their differences and expand cooperation, they will demonstrate that competition need not exclude collaboration.

For 18 centuries, these two civilizations proved exactly that. The estrangement is the recent part; the effort to end it is more recent still. BRICS gives a place to do that work, alongside others who need the two countries to succeed.

The author is a distinguished visiting professor at Tsinghua University and was the United Nations resident coordinator in China from 2021 to 2026.

The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn.