Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping will this weekend have their first chance to eyeball each other since their two armies began literally to bump chests at the India-China border — but just as their troops refuse to draw arms, the two leaders will not meet one-on-one.
The Indian prime minister and the Chinese president both land in Germany on Friday for the two-day G20 meeting, but Beijing has ruled out a bilateral meeting, saying “the atmosphere is not right”, amid tensions at the border close to the tiny nation of Bhutan.
Mr Modi and Mr Xi have previously tried to smooth over historic tensions between the two countries, but the frostiness this weekend marks a deterioration in the relationship fuelled by Indian mistrust of Chinese intentions in south Asia.