Partners on the communiqué, competitors on the map

Friendship, in the language of States, is a thick claim. It implies aligned core interests, a shared hierarchy of threats, and a willingness to subordinate tactical advantage to mutual trust. What New Delhi hosted last weekend was something more familiar and more durable in Asian statecraft: a managed reset under conditions that India itself continues to set. The official record is the proper starting point. In the Indian readout of the September 12 bilateral, Modi placed peace and tranquillity along the frontier at the centre of any further opening. Border calm, he said, remains an “essential basis” for the development…