THE CONUNDRUM OF INDIA-CHINA RELATIONSHIP DURING MODI -XI JINPING ERA

India and China are neighbors and have been seen as competitors since the 1950s. China spectacular economic growth is speckled ahead of India in all elements of wide-ranging national power. Though Trade between the two countries is creating new records, still both continue to interface at multilateral forums, including those associated with security such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum. Border issues are an ongoing woe and it is the generally irritable drift between their relations; while mutual relations are stabilized in other areas. China has made significant inroads into Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Bangladesh, and expanded significantly across the Indian Ocean which was regarded by India as its backyard. The border dispute between India and China has been used as an instrument by China for keeping India off balance. The two countries are stationed at a junction, and this might be the final chance to take the path to coexistence, cooperation and competition or else it will give rise to a new phase of aggressive rivalry, where both the countries will be in confrontation as the calculated border of China collides with the strategic backyard of India in the Indian Ocean region. In the present paper, the researcher has adopted a non-empirical research methodology to analyze the puzzling Sino-Indian relations in recent times where on one hand both countries are escalating their trade ties and on another India has banned several Chinese Apps in India. At a certain point of time, the leaders engage in reaching consensus on strategic issues and on the country both start a military faceoff. Even in regional cooperation both the countries have divergent perspectives.