Four years after a deadly border clash between their troops plunged India-China ties to their lowest point in decades, New Delhi on Monday announced that the Asian giants had agreed on a deal that would de-escalate tensions along the Line of Actual Control, the disputed, de facto, unmarked boundary between them. China’s foreign ministry has confirmed the developments as well. S. Jaishankar, the external affairs minister of India, said that the pact had effectively returned the state of the border to where it was in 2020 when at least 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese troops died in hand-to-hand combat, the first border deaths in decades. However, both sides remained tight-lipped about the agreements that have been reached. Whether the deal also helps restore the broader India-China relationship to some sort of normalcy thus remains a key question. India banned TikTok, the immensely popular social media app owned by the Chinese firm, ByteDance, in the immediate aftermath of the clash. In the years since, New Delhi has dramatically ramped up scrutiny and red tape around a series of proposed Chinese investments in India even at the risk of turning away billions of dollars from potential spenders. Soldiers from India and China have also had tense exchanges at other border points.

The first pointer to the broader direction of ties could come this week in Kazan, Russia, if Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, meet on the sidelines of the BRICS summit. A thaw in tensions could help India woo more investments and allow the nations to further enhance trade. It would also allow India and China to collaborate better on global issues where they are largely aligned, such as on reforms to the International Monetary Fund and climate change. But for any positive shift in ties to be sustainable, India must put in place mechanisms to verify China’s actions along the border and use this week’s ‘breakthrough’ to prepare for how it might respond if Beijing breaches its commitments. Mr Modi’s government must, at the same time, detail the state of the border to the people of India through Parliament. This should include the status of the territory that India claims but that reports suggest China has grabbed since 2020. Diplomacy appears to have prevailed when it comes to the India-China standoff. Mr Modi’s government should ensure that transparency
triumphs as well.