Telling scuffle at Goa airport

Charu Sudan Kasturi, TT, Benaulim (Goa), Oct. 15:   India and China on Saturday agreed to hold a series of urgent meetings to try and reduce growing tensions and mistrust - over Pakistan, and New Delhi's global aspirations - reflected in two altercations involving their security personnel.

Chinese state councillor Yang Jiechi, the country's de facto national security adviser, will visit New Delhi soon for talks with his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval amid sharp differences over Beijing's refusal to allow UN sanctions against Pakistan-based terrorist Masood Azhar. India blames Azhar's Jaish-e-Mohammed, a proscribed group, for the September 18 Uri attack.

Chinese President Xi Jinping also promised Prime Minister Narendra Modi today that Beijing was ready to host the second round of bilateral negotiations over India's bid to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group - which China has opposed.

But neither on Azhar's proscription nor on India's NSG bid did Xi and the Chinese delegation indicate any softening of their position, beyond a willingness to talk, senior officials familiar with the discussions told The Telegraph .

The meeting between Modi and Xi, originally scheduled for 40 minutes, extended to twice that time - in part because of translations on both sides breaking the conversation, but also because their differences remained intact.

Those differences spilled outside the room where Modi and Xi were meeting, at the Taj Exotica hotel here, as security personnel of the two delegations engaged in a verbal joust, hours after a similar incident at Dabolim airport.

"They have to decide what is in their interest - we have raised it with them at every level," foreign ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said, when asked about Xi's response to Modi's prod on the UN sanctions against Azhar. "This issue will be taken up again when our NSA meets Mr Yang Jiechi. We are hopeful that they will understand our logic."

The strain in the relationship showed up minutes after Xi's Air China plane landed after 1pm at the naval airbase in north Goa's Dabolim, where 10 visiting world leaders arrived over the past 24 hours.

A Chinese photographer stepped up towards the plane to take better images of Xi descending from the aircraft, but Indian security personnel at the airport concluded he was pressing too close. The photographer was pushed back, but resisted and was eventually dragged away a few feet. The incident carried shades of an altercation that broke out between American and Chinese officials at Hangzhou airport last month when US President Barack Obama landed but found no staircase leading down to a traditional red carpet.

Five hours after the incident at Dabolim airport today, a second fracas threatened to break out - this time metres away from where Modi and Xi were holding talks. As with the airport incident, the foreign office refused to comment on the verbal altercation at the hotel.

But officials present at the meeting venue confirmed that Chinese security personnel briefly argued with their Indian counterparts over who all would have access to the room where talks were under way.

The two incidents - described by officials as minor - capture the tenor of the relationship, just two years after Modi watched Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan gently ride a swing specially constructed for them on the banks of the Sabarmati.

From an equation that began with hope - both leaders said they were keen on an "early resolution" of the boundary dispute - the relationship has devolved into a near-daily challenge. China's block on Azhar's listing as a UN-designated terrorist, and its veto against New Delhi's NSG membership are the two biggest roadblocks currently stalling ties, from India's perspective.

On Saturday, Modi articulated these concerns again.

"Prime Minister said that today, no country is untouched by terrorism," Swarup said. "Therefore, this is an area where we cannot afford to have differences."

India and China, Modi told Xi, according to Swarup, must coordinate at the UN's 1267 Committee that proscribes terrorists and where Beijing has now twice put on "technical hold" New Delhi's demand for Azhar's ban.

Xi agreed with Modi that terrorism and violent extremism were key concerns - and cited the rise of the Islamic State, according to both the Indian and Chinese accounts. He also recommended deeper security cooperation, and urged Modi to maintain "strategic communication" with China on terrorism.

"On terrorism, both leaders agreed that this was a scourge for the whole region," Indian ambassador to China Vijay Gokhale said.

But sending Yang to New Delhi was all Xi committed to.

On India's bid to join the NSG, Modi told Xi that the two countries must "remain in communication to work towards India's membership", Swarup said.

Xi referred to a meeting held between the top nuclear negotiators of the two countries in New Delhi last month, and called those talks "helpful". He also promised to host a second meeting of the negotiators in Beijing "very soon," said Swarup.

But China only yesterday made clear that its position on India's membership remains unchanged - and Xi offered no hint of any shift today.