Round The World

New Delhi, 11 August 2009

India-China Relations

DELINKING THE BORDER ISSUE

 By Monish Tourangbam

Research Scholar, School of International Studies, JNU

Another round of talks on the intractable border issue between India and China is over without any substantial development. The recently concluded talks focused more on carrying forward India-China bilateral relations despite lingering differences on the long-drawn border dispute. Controversial issues and irritants were toned down and the 13^th Round of India-China Special Representatives talks on the border issue ended on a feel-good note, with both the sides emphasizing the areas of convergence between the two countries and exuding hope for discovering mutuality of interest between the two of the fastest growing economies in the world.

India’s National Security Adviser (NSA) M.K. Narayanan and Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo, special representatives of the India-China talks on the border question met with a more inclusive agenda after a year’s hiatus. The intention was to cover a wider ambit of issues rather than being deadlocked on the border claims.

During the two-day talks in New Delhi, the two delegations deliberated on a host of issues, including the role that the two major economies and principal powers in the Asian region had to play in regional as well as international issues.  The latest talks also served as the spadework for some high-level bilateral visits in the near future. According to reports, President Pratibha Patil is scheduled to visit Beijing soon and a “top” Chinese leader is due to arrive later this year. China’s Foreign Minister Yang Jeichi is also expected to attend the Russia-India-China (RIC) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in New Delhi for which dates are being worked out.

Even before the talks began, analysts in both the countries did not profess an easy solution of the border issues and felt that the negotiations on the disputed border would be a long drawn process. They opined that it would be wrong to expect any substantive progress in the near future.

Fu Xiaoqiang, a scholar on South Asia at China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, had said the border issue was “complicated” and the latest talks would "hardly" make substantive progress. New Delhi-based strategic analyst Brahma Chellaney is reported to have said, “The outlook of this round (of talks) is certainly not good. The atmosphere has deteriorated in recent months, plus there's been escalation of tension along the Himalayan border.”

Around two months ago, the Asian Develpoment Bank (ADB) came in for sharp criticism from China. China objected to a $60 million ADB loan for a flood management project in Arunachal Pradesh, parts of which are still being claimed by Beijing. The Chinese Foreign Minsitry spokesman Qin Gang expressed “strong dissatisfaction” over the decision and said the Country Partnership Strategy for India involves disputed areas between China and India. The Chinese government accused the regional bank of meddling in the political affairs of its members. The outcome of the decision, according to spokesman Qin could neither change the fact that India and China had major territorial disputes, nor change China’s position on the border issue.

The list of concerns that India has expressed against China is rather long and many of these issues stand in the way of India-China relations taking-off. Major concerns have been expressed against China’s close-links with Pakistan and China’s ambivalent attitude toward the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) granting a waiver to India last year. After the NSG meet in Vienna in September 2008, NSA Narayanan reported to the Union Cabinet that China was the last one standing against India as all other objectors fell in line. Moreover, Indian officials have resented Chinese patrolling of the 3,500-km (2,200-mile) border, particularly along India's Arunachal Pradesh state. Many see this activism as assertive and a deliberate part of the “Rising China” strategy.

In response, India began to modernize its border roads and moved a squadron of Su-30 strike aircraft close to the border. Arunachal Governor J.J.Singh said in June up to 30,000 new troops would be deployed in the area. As obvious, the reaction in Chinese official media has been strong. An editorial in The Global Times said China would never compromise on the border dispute and asked India to consider if it could afford the consequences of a conflict with China.

The Indian Defence Yearbook released in February 2009 said that the confrontation between the Chinese and Indian Armed Forces which reached a high during 2008, despite a rapprochement between the two countries, was likely to continue in 2009. According to the Yearbook, close to 400 incidents of border intrusion have occurred in the last three years, with over 140 in 2007 and many more in 2008. The Yearbook also said that the foreign policy and material assistance provided by China to India’s neighbouring countries like Pakistan, Myanmar and Bangladesh is clear proof of its strategy of strategic encirclement of India.

India-China relations are haunted by the ghost of the 1962 war over the border issue and as the rising pillars of power in Asia, the interests of the two countries often seem to clash in a number of regional and international issues. The talks recently concluded in India’s capital have been highlighted as initiating the “stage two” of the talks on the border dispute.

According to reports, the first stage of the border talks concluded in April 2005, where the two countries agreed to find a political solution based on “political parameters and guiding principles”. The ongoing second is supposed to try and explore a framework for a “final package settlement” of all the disputed areas. Then, the third stage is meant to set in motion the process for demarcating and dileneating the border.

No doubt, the recent talks ended in a warm atmosphere, with broad smiles and hopes of a better relations projected. But, away from the lights, cameras and diplomatic niceties, both the sides will get down to practical, strategic and hard core security-driven manouevres. The intractable and the compelx nature of the issue and the lack of trust between these two Asian powers loom- large on the policymakers.

But diplomacy demands interrupted linkages on a number of issues, giving the negotiations a chance to explore wider areas of convergence. If India-China standoff over the border dispute lingers, as expected, both the sides should have enough traction to work together on other equally important areas of interest. During the talks, India and China decided to set up a hotline between Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and Wen Jiabao as a confidence building measure. The special representatives pointed out that the India-China bilateral trade totaled $52 billion last year despite the global economic meltdown.

To commemorate the 60^th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations next year, it was also decided to hold the Year of Friendship with China in India, while China will also reciprocate with similar celebrations. Thus, regular high-level engagements between the two Asian powers are generally seen as a pragmatic measure to keep oiling the wheel of bilateral relations. The effort has been seemingly to de-link the border issue from other areas where India and China can work mutually toward tackling issues like the global economic crisis, trade cooperation and climate change.---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)