India, Aug. 9 -- The price Xi may demand is not territorial but spiritual. Beijing insists that the succession of the Dalai Lama is a matter of Chinese sovereignty, not Tibetan tradition.

When Xi Jinping arrives in India for the BRICS sum-mit, the choreography of diplomacy will mask a deeper negotiation. Be-hind the handshakes and communiques lies a po-tential bargain of historic consequence: Beijing's willingness to settle the long-festering Sino-Indi-an border dispute in ex-change for New Delhi's si-lence on the Dalai Lama's reincarnation.

THE BORDER CARD: For decades, the Hima-layan frontier has been a scar on Sino-Indian relations. Skirmishes in Ladakh, tense patrols in Arunachal Pradesh, and the shadow of 1962 have kept the two Asi...