NEW DELHI: There are summits, and then there are ‘informal’ summits. The latter has been in the news of late with PM Narendra Modi embarking on two of them back to back, with President Xi Jinping in Wuhan, China, on April 27-28, and with President Putin in Sochi, Russia, on May 21.
Officials insist this is a part of Modi’s attempts to go beyond traditional diplomatic outreach, and that it began with his invitation to all SAARC heads of state and government to attend his swearing-in as Prime Minister on May 26, 2014. They point to his dropping in on then Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif on December 25, 2015 to wish him on his birthday and his unscheduled stopover in Germany to meet Angela Merkel on his way back from the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting as other examples of such personal outreach.
Formal summits involve months of minute diplomatic planning and choreography, and topics to be avoided during the discussions are often as important as those on the agenda. By definition, informal summits lack the pomp, protocol and ceremony of formal ones, including delegation-level talks and a pre-set agenda for discussions. No agreements are signed, and there is no joint statement or press conference. And the two leaders involved hold one-to one discussions, sometimes with only translators present.
In Wuhan, “the two leaders spent nine hours together in seven events, including four one-on-one meetings, walking and tea-tasting along the lakeside, boat ride, and museum tour. The protocol arrangements eventually made the guest relaxed, comfortable and feel at home,” China’s ambassador to India Luo Zhaohui wrote in a newspaper.
“A lot of ink has flowed on resetting the relations with China. One month after the meeting, what remains?” asks Claude Arpi, author of several books on Tibet and China. “A first achievement is a more peaceful border (at least for now). Hopefully, there will be no Doklam in 2018. The two leaders agreed to issue strategic guidance to their militaries to build trust and mutual understanding. Till now, it has worked. Also, the informal meet has set up a new trend for leaders to meet ‘informally’ in order to know and understand each other better. The meeting with Putin in Sochi is another such step. This can only have positive results in the long term, as during ‘official’ meetings, the atmosphere is often not favourable to get a deeper understanding.”
“By not setting expectations or deliverables, there is that much less pressure on the leaders,” says an Indian diplomat. “And if they do come to some pathbreaking agreement, that is just icing on the cake. But by making them regular affairs, like Modi has done by inviting Xi for an another such summit in India, you are actually turning them into formal events.”
A foreign diplomat concurs, noting “already, there seems to be a structure evolving for these ‘informal’ summits, like the boat ride in China and the yacht ride in Russia…similar to the one at Varanasi during French president Macron’s visit to India, though that was a formal visit.”
Peter Lee, who writes on East and South Asian affairs and their intersection with US foreign policy for Asia Times Online and elsewhere, says, “To me, Modi’s informal summits appear to be a hedging/signaling strategy responding to the Trump administration’s more hostile Iran policy and aggressive strategy for Asia. As they develop, the US moves may bring heightened risks and undesirable consequences to India, and it is in India’s interest to position itself as a ‘conditional partner’ rather than ‘lockstep ally’. The ‘informal’ summits reassert the tradition of independent Indian diplomacy while avoiding a formal strategic tilt toward America’s adversaries.”