India, Sept. 13 -- Yet the road to de-escalation is an arduous and hazardous one.

Even the critics of the Narendra Modi government's China policy will concede that External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar did not return empty handed from Moscow after his meeting with Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

It would have been unrealistic to expect any spectacular breakthrough in normalising Sino-Indian bilateral relations. In diplomacy even modest progress is worthy of respect. Let us ignore the fog making diplomatic jargons, India and China on Thursday held frank and constructive (cliche with a capital C) discussion and conceded the standoff was "not in the interest of either side". Both sides agreed to a five-point plan t...