The world’s largest authoritarian country will be watching closely as the neighboring world’s largest democracy announces its election results.
Months after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi won his first general election in 2014, he hosted Chinese leader Xi Jinping for a state visit with a warm welcome and won $20 billion in investment and trade deals from China.
But relations between the neighbors have since plummeted.
The two nuclear-armed powers have seen deadly clashes over a long-running dispute over their contested 2,100-mile border and an intensifying showdown in areas from the economy to geopolitics.
In recent years, India has banned hundreds of Chinese apps on national security grounds and forged closer ties to Washington due to concerns about Beijing’s growing assertiveness.
The Asian giants are also vying for leadership in the Global South and courting developing nations for support in a new international order.
Economic competition ratcheting up: Last year, India overtook China as the world’s most populous country. And Modi has vowed to make India the third-largest global economy, up from its current fifth place. Soon, he said, India will become the “growth engine” for the world — a title long held by China as it transformed from an impoverished nation to the world’s second-largest economy.
Beijing will also be closely watching Modi’s economic plans to turn India into a go-to for investors seeking an alternative to China, which is grappling with a myriad of economic challenges, including accelerated capital flight.