China Connect

With China on mind, India, Indonesia firm up maritime nexus

- by Manish Chand

With an eye on China, India and Indonesia, Asia’s most populous democracies and emerging powers, have firmed up a blueprint for enhancing maritime cooperation and resolved to jointly combat terror. In a calculated move that is set to antagonise Beijing, India has backed Indonesia on the latter’s escalating dispute with China on territorial claims in South China Sea.
The talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo in New Delhi on December 12 have culminated in an ambitious joint statement to upscale strategic partnership, with concrete plans for expanding bilateral defence and maritime cooperation. The first visit by Jokowi, as the Indonesian president is popularly known in his country, to India has been closely watched in China, which looks at India’s attempts to forge closer strategic ties with ASEAN countries as part of its calibrated containment strategy.
China was the elephant in the room when PM Modi and his Indonesian counterpart held talks in the Indian capital as both India and Indonesia count China as their largest trading partner, but have unease about Beijing’s hegemonistic intentions. Managing the China challenge without getting into the containment trap is a shared concern for both countries.
The talks rightly prioritised expanding defence and security cooperation as a core priority to actualise the full potential of this sub-optimal relationship. “As two important maritime nations that are also neighbours, we agreed to cooperate to ensure the safety and security of the sea lanes, in disaster response and environmental protection,” said Mr Modi.
Another important takeaway from the latest round of high-profile engagement between the leaders of India and Indonesia was a convergence of positions on terrorism that thrives on sanctuaries provided by states with vested interests.
This strategic concord between Asia’s emerging economies on issues of terrorism and South China Sea is a signal to China that there is not much room for ambivalence and sent a message to the region that the entire Asian hemisphere benefits from a collective approach to regional security.

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How India and China can create a multi-polar Asia

- by India Writes Network

It is generally under-estimated how much India and China, as proximate neighbours, have had to do with each other in the course of history. The evidence of our interaction is there in front of our eyes, whether along the Silk Road or at Dunhuang, Luoyang or Datong. There are still older examples – be it in provinces like Sichuan, or indeed, later ones along the Fujian coastline. Yet, a narrative that we have always been distant from each other was successfully constructed by Western powers that had an interest in doing so. As Prof. PC Bagchi notes in his unique work on a thousand years of our cultural history, the accidents of the World War II reconnected two peoples who had almost forgotten their common past. Unfortunately, the border conflict and its political consequences interrupted this process. Although India was among the earliest Governments to establish ties and promote cooperation with the People’s Republic of China, the three lost decades compel us to still play catch up with relationships that came very much later.

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Modi’s Japan journey: Why Delhi-Tokyo strategic connect matters

- by Manish Chand

The Tokyo-Delhi connect is set to acquire a deeper strategic dimension with the hoped-for signing of a transformational nuclear deal and a host of initiatives to enhance maritime security cooperation during the November 10-12 visit of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Japan. The visit will be not only closely scanned in New Delhi and Tokyo, but most importantly in Beijing, which continues to nurture containment anxieties and has already red-flagged its concerns over a possible Delhi-Tokyo axis on the South China Sea.
Mr Modi will spend barely 48 hours in Tokyo, but much will be accomplished during his annual summit meeting with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe in Tokyo on November 11. If the latest indications are anything to go by, the visit will see the transformative moment as Japan moves beyond years of strategic vacillation to sign the much-awaited nuclear deal that will pitchfork the India-Japan ties on another plane.
In many ways, the current geo-strategic and geo-economic situation have created a conjunction of India’s Japan Moment and Japan’s India moment. Mr Modi and Mr Abe, who have famously forged a personal chemistry, are ideal partners to propel this partnership to new heights.
The nuclear issue is the last albatross holding back the full potential of this mutually fecundating relationship, and if the nuclear deal is signed in Tokyo, expect a major upsurge in India-Japan relations across the spectrum and an added ballast to the narrative of an inclusive Asian Century.

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Decoding Tibet’s Investment Boom: A reality check

- by India Writes Network

The term ‘miracle’ recurs as a leitmotif in any discussion on China’s much-touted economic growth rates. Behind this miracle lies massive investments by the Chinese state. Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) are an additional yet enormous factor behind the miracle.
In trying to understand how investments could lay the foundations of future growth, a case study of the Tibet Autonomous Region becomes pertinent. Tibet, which is still one of the poorest provinces in the country, massively lacks infrastructural bases for industrial growth to take off. Tibet’s case stands out even more when compared with the southern and eastern provinces of China. However, given the “new normal” under which the country is currently operating, which means slower growth rates from the medium to long term, provinces which have traditionally not been the best performers in terms of contribution to China’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), are now being focussed upon by the state.

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Getting real: India, China to step up anti-terror cooperation, hope for NSG progress

- by Manish Chand

Taking a realistic and long-term view of their burgeoning but challenging relationship, India and China have decided to adopt an incremental approach to resolving contentious issues like the UN proscription of international terrorist Masood Azhar and New Delhi’s membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, without letting these affect the larger relationship, bristling with possibilities.
In their third meeting this year, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed key issues, including terrorism, NSG and enhancing trade and investment, that have a direct bearing on the future trajectory of the relationship between the two Asian giants.
Looking ahead, India and China are set to focus on ramping up the economic relationship, which has emerged a key pillar underpinning the crucial relationship. In this context, President Xi called for co-operation between India and China in railways, industrial parks, vocational and skill training, space and ICT. This “economics first” approach suggests realism and pragmatism, but to focus only on the economic relationship has its limitations. The real breakthrough that will release pent-up energies of the India-China relationship will be Beijing’s explicit support for India’s global aspirations, including membership of the NSG and New Delhi’s long-standing claim for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council.

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Why is China shielding Masood Azhar, global terrorist, jihad-peddler and hate-monger?

- by India Writes Network

Why is China repeatedly blocking India’s initiative to sanction and designate Masood Azhar, the architect of the 26/11 Mumbai massacre and the Pathankot airbase assault, as an international terrorist? The answer is not all that esoteric as Beijing is simply rallying behind its all-weather ally and client state Pakistan, which is under pressure from India to account for the attack on the military camp at Uri by Pakistani terrorists.
At a time when India is engaged in a concerted diplomatic offensive to isolate Pakistan internationally over its support to cross-border terror, China’s stance over Masood Azhar designation has come as a huge disappointment for India. China’s posture is especially galling for India as it reveals duplicity and indicates a segmented approach towards terrorism, which is coming in the way of forging a united global front against terrorism.
Talking of evidence and objectivity, Chinese officials have to only listen to numerous hate speeches made by Azhar against not only India, but also against all infidels in the world. In Azhar’s twisted worldview and warped-up theology, all non-Muslims, including Han Chinese, are enemies and should be killed to please Allah!
The twisted logic of Pakistan, a self-destroying failing state, is understandable, but for China this vacillation and sophistry on Masood Azhar’s designation a global terrorist undermines its big power pretensions. The promise of an Asian Century, in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping decided to collaborate, can’t be fructified if cross-border terrorism continues unabated. Shielding Masood Azhar, a propagandist zealot and a terror impresario, in the UN can’t be part of the China Dream, which President Xi has so eloquently spoken about, and it surely does not befit an ancient civilisation and an emerging power!

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Act East in Laos: Focus on Modi’s meetings with Abe, Obama

- by Manish Chand

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe were staying in the same hotel in Hangzhou for the G20 summit, and may have engaged in ritualistic pleasantries, but with China looking on, they will meet in Vientiane for a substantive bilateral meeting.
In a delicate geopolitical game, after engaging China’s President Xi Jinping in Hangzhou, PM Modi will now turn to India’s trusted strategic partner for support on the country’s crucial development agenda in which Tokyo has emerged as New Delhi’s prime partner. Significantly, Mr Xi and Mr Abe also met briefly on the sidelines of the G20 summit, signalling prospects of a thaw in strained bilateral relations between the two estranged rivals.
The meeting between Mr Modi and Mr Abe, who have forged a personal chemistry and special relationship, will be watched closely in Beijing for obvious reasons. China suspects India to be locked into a containment game with Japan and the US, a perception that has been repeatedly countered by New Delhi.
In Vientiane, Mr Modi will also hold a bilateral meeting with US President Barack Obama. Mr Modi met Mr Obama for a brief pull aside talk in Hanzhou, with Mr Obama lauding the Indian leader for the passage of the path-breaking Goods and Sales Tax. The two leaders will have substantive discussions in Laos, with India’s membership of the NSG topping the agenda.

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G20 summit: India, China converge on G20 agenda, Modi calls for action-oriented agenda for growth

- by Manish Chand

It’s time to move beyond empty talk and forge an action-oriented agenda for collective action to forge more efficient and effective global economic and financial architecture. This was the central thrust of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention at the ongoing G20 summit of the world’s major economies in Hangzhou, the picturesque city famed for its iconic West Lake.
Mr Modi’s speech at the G20 summit saw a striking convergence with key thoughts expressed by President Xi Jinping at the opening of the summit on September 4, reflecting prospects of enhanced global cooperation between Asia’s second and third largest economies amid notes of dissonance on some bilateral issues. In his remarks at the summit, Mr Xi, the host of the G20 summit, lauded Mr Modi for his leadership of the Indian economy, and singled out India’s energy policy for special praise.
Building upon central tropes of his intervention on the Day 1 of the G20 summit the previous day, Mr Modi underscored the imperative need for “more efficient and effective global economic and financial governance,” and reiterated zero tolerance for corruption and black money, the twin issues which are also central to his domestic agenda for economic rejuvenation of India.
“G20 needs an action-oriented agenda of collective, coordinated and targeted action,” Mr Modi had told the world leaders on September 4. “To benefit all, G20 would need to act decisively. This will also require strong network of partnerships,” he said. Read more…

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BRICS bonding: Modi targets global supply chain of terror

- by Manish Chand

Against the backdrop of the escalating threat from cross-border terrorism from Pakistan and the rise of the Islamic State, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for enhanced intra-BRICS and international cooperation in breaking the “global supply chain of terror and isolate those states that sponsor terrorism.”
Intensifying counter-terror cooperation topped the agenda during various engagements of PM Modi in Hangzhou, the venue of the G20 summit, on September 4. The focus on terror was evident in his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping during which he stressed that the approach to terror “must not be politically motivated.”

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