Round The World
New Delhi, 1 June 2010
Patil’s China Visit
IN SEARCH OF CONVERGING INTERESTS
By Monish Tourangbam
Research Scholar, School of International
Studies, JNU
In recent times, India-China
diplomatic relations seem to concentrate on a pattern, which is to tone down
the areas of differences and amplify the areas of convergences. President
Pratibha Patil’s visit was no different. Patil successfully engaged in a
well-intended public diplomacy covering the political, economic and cultural
aspects of India-China relations. Being the first Indian head of state to visit
China
in a decade, Patil had made extra efforts to make the trip memorable and
fruitful in all matters. Her six-day visit generated a lot of positive steam in
China even before she landed
in Beijing,
with Chinese scholars and the media commenting favourably on the prospects of
her official tour.
The President walked the extra mile
to drive home the point that she was indeed representing an India that
seriously and sincerely wanted to take India-China relations to a new level.
According to sources, she got all Chinese names and places written in the
Devnagri script in her speeches to ensure she pronounced them properly. A week
before the trip commenced, she was given a briefing on China by the
External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna.
Despite all the differences between India and China as neigbouring countries with
an intractable boundary dispute and as growing powers with clash of interests
in various areas, the two countries do understand that efforts to cooperate are
inevitable. The international system in this globalizing world changes very
rapidly and growing economies like India and China with many stakes in
different parts of the world need to cooperate as much as possible while competing.
It is for nothing that the President’s favourite line on
India-China ties is “enough space in the world for both countries to fulfill
their individual aspirations and prosper”. India
and China
can ill-afford to miss the super-fast express of globalization by engaging in
myopic and retrogressive exchanges. The challenge at hand is to find even a
grain of goodwill and polish it to such an extent that it sets an example for
collaboration and mutualism in other areas. And the President could not have conducted
herself better as the goodwill ambassador from India.
Patil was all praise for the Indian community for their
contribution in strengthening Sino-Indian ties, hinting on their responsibility
to function as a bridge between the two nations. President Patil during her
visit also initiated a major diplomatic milestone that embodies all the good
things in a relationship otherwise filled with bad memories and suspicion.
Mirroring years of civilizational contact with the Indian mainland through the
teachings of Buddhism, the visiting Indian head of state inaugurated the first
Indian style Buddhist temple in China.
The temple, a joint Sino-Indian effort is located adjacent to the White Horse
Buddhist Temple at Luoyang in the Henan province
of China.
She also unveiled a statue of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore in
a main avenue in Shanghai commemorating the
indelible impact that the Indian writer left on the literary landscape of China. The
Indian President also lauded the ‘Festival of India’ in China and the Indian
participation at the Shanghai Expo 2010 as integral parts of Indian outreach
to China for the better understanding of
each others’ culture and ethos.
Besides effectively engaging in one of the most widely
covered and positively reviewed public diplomacy by an Indian head of state,
she also signed a couple of agreements with the Chinese side. Three bilateral
cooperation pacts, including two Memoranda of Understandings (MoUs), were
signed after talks between Patil and her Chinese counterpart Hu
Jintao in the Great Hall of The People in Beijing.
The first
agreement was for cooperation on visa application formalities for airline staff of the two countries. The second, a MoU, was
signed between Chinese Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the
Indian Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, for cooperation
in the field of civil services and the third, another MoU was signed for
cooperation in space technology.
Meeting with all
top Chinese leaders, including Premier Wen Jiabao and the Chairman of the
National People's Congress Wu Bangguo, issues of bilateral, regional and global
interest were discussed between the leaders, including the issuance of stapled
visas to Kashmiris by China and Beijing's support for India's bid for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council.
Regarding India’s aspirations for a permanent seat at the
Security Council, China’s
response has been vague and guarded at best. China giving its “well rehearsed
and pre-recorded” response has become a permanent fixture in India-China talks.
Beijing is clear in its support for India’s
candidature for a non-permanent seat at the Council but when it comes to a
veto-wielding permanent seat, its response is as diplomatic as it gets. The
same reply was also played out during the Indian Foreign Minister’s China visit
earlier this year.
All that China can manage to say is, “It understands and
supports India’s
aspirations and desire to play a greater role in the UN especially in the
Security Council.” According to reports, this is the same policy line that Beijing has adopted since Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to India in 2005, also reiterated during Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to China in 2008, thus indicating the
lack of traction and the continuing stalemate in this issue. But, we need not
blow critical trumpets at this issue, since sharing and distribution of power
has never and will never be an easy and self-initiated decision for major
powers in the international system.
The robust
economic ties between India
and China
could provide a major balancing force to the many strains in Sino-Indian
relations. But some dark clouds of discord (read the widening India’s trade deficit vis-à-vis China) are
hovering and they need to be remedied before torrential rains could spoil the
India-China harvest. But as of now, India has managed to secure an
assurance from the Chinese side that it will "seriously" address the unviable trade
imbalance that gives it a $16 billion surplus, saying that addressing trade
balance was part of their long-term strategy.
In an otherwise fruitful presidential trip in entirety, the
Chinese managed to show a little fang when it raised the issue of Tibet and the Dalai Lama, seeking
reiteration of India's stand
that Tibet is a part of China. In
response, Patil reiterated that Tibet is an internal part of China and that India will not allow its soil to be
used for anti-China activities. But there was nothing odd about China raising
this issue and not much should be read out of this. As of now, the Indian
leader has given her reply and it should be left at that.
Heated exchanges
and rhetoric are routine and usual between India and China-competitors in the
regional and global arena with the history of a war that lingers on in memories
and in an intractable border dispute. But, we can allow relations to be
dictated by these discords and contentions only at the peril of development and
long-term mutualism that these two nations cannot afford to forego.---INFA
(Copyright, India
News and Feature Alliance)
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