Author: India Writes Network

Ahead of Modi visit, India, China to iron out boundary issues

- by India Writes Network

India and China are poised to hold their first round of boundary talks since the formation of the Narendra Modi government in New Delhi – a key round of discussions that could see some movement ahead of the Indian leader’s much-awaited visit to Beijing.
China’s Special Representative for boundary talks, Yang Jiechi, a former foreign minister, will hold talks with his Indian counterpart, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, in New Delhi on March 23-24.
Ahead of the talks, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has struck an optimistic note and spoke out an uphill climb recording some positive developments. “At the moment, the boundary negotiation is in the process of building up small positive developments. It is like climbing a mountain,” he said. “The going is tough, and that’s only because we are on the way up and that the dispute (on the LAC) has been contained, he had remarked a couple of weeks ago, in much-reported remarks.
On a positive note, we must keep in mind that there are several components to the Sino-Indian relationship. While a boundary dispute acts an inhibitor, at times, to progress on other fronts, due credit must be given to both governments for not allowing it to hamper the multifarious cooperation between Asia’s first and third largest economies.

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Indian hostages in Iraq: India seeks Turkey’s help

- by India Writes Network

With the extremist Sunni terror group ISIS continuing its assault in the Middle East, the lives of 39 Indian constructions workers hang in the balance as they remain in the ISIS’s captivity for almost nine months. Against this backdrop, India has sought Turkey’s help to secure the release of the Indian hostages from Iraq, who were kidnapped from Mosul, Iraq, last June.

India’s External Affair Minister Sushma Swaraj has been pursuing the issue over the past months through various channels and took it up with her Turkish counterpart, Mr. Mevlut Cavusoglu, who was in India on a short visit. Although intelligence agencies have been unable to locate the exact whereabouts of the Indian hostages and their captors, the talks with Turkey have brought fresh hope for their secure rescue.

India was faced with a similar situation last year when the ISIS held 46 nurses captive, later releasing them unharmed. Their safe return to India, after much back and forth across multiple diplomatic channels, showed the diplomatic prowess of the newly-elected Modi government.

In the current case, according to sources, Mr. Cavusoglu said that the ISIS’s information flow was very “restricted” and no concrete details were available on the whereabouts of Indian workers. Recent ISIS killings of hostages from Japan have caused concern for the safety of the Indian hostages. Some sources had also claimed earlier that the hostages had been killed.

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‘Modi ranks ahead of Xi in handling domestic affairs and Global diplomacy’

- by India Writes Network

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi added yet another feather to his cap by securing the top rank, ahead of China’s President Xi Jinping, in handling domestic as well as international affairs, as per China’s National Image Global Survey 2014, which ranked nine heads of state on different parameters.

The survey, collating responses of 4500 people across nine countries, showed that amongst the leaders’ capability in handling domestic affairs, Mr. Modi led the rest with a score of 3.74 on a scale of five, followed by Mr. Xi (3.58), Mr. Tony Abbott (3.55), Mr. David Cameron (3.53), Mr. Barack Obama (3.48) and Mr. Shinzo Abe (3.37). In the international affairs department too, Mr. Modi scored ahead of Mr. Xi, followed by Mr. Cameron and Mr. Obama.

“Xi’s handling of both domestic and international affairs has won high praise. He ranks second, after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for his capability of handling domestic and international affairs,” Said Wang Gangyi, vice-president of China International Publishing Group, citing the survey report released in Beijing on March 18.

The survey was aimed at surveying international perception towards global leaders’ domestic and foreign image and policies. It also showed that President Obama was the most well known Head of State, followed by Mr. Putin.

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China, Japan open security dialogue after 4 years

- by India Writes Network

In what seems to be a promising development, China and Japan, the two leading Asian economies entangled in a festering territorial dispute, have held their first high level security talks in four years. The meeting in Tokyo signals the possibility of a thaw in strained relations between the two countries estranged by historical issues and perception of rivalry.
The meeting focused on improving the bitter relations and setting up a maritime communication hotline between the two countries. The meeting came ahead of a trilateral meeting between the foreign ministers of Japan, China and South Korea on March 21, in Seoul for the first time in nearly three years.
Both China and South Korea have historical issues relating to Japan’s militarist past of wartime aggression. The way ahead lies in finding some mode of grand reconciliation and facing up to the past while looking ahead to the future of possibilities.
The possible thaw in relations between China and Japan also bodes well for India, which is looking to forge multi-pronged relations with the world’s second and third largest economies on separate tracks.

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