China Connect

Listening in to what China has to say: Asian Bank, MSR, strategy and blue skies

- by India Writes Network

India and China are walking together in a spirit of ‘competitive cooperation’ that can bring about prosperity not only to Asia, but can give a sense of hope to most of the developing and under-developed world.
Recently, when a delegation of Indian journalists was landing in Beijing, Premier Li Keqiang had left for Brussels to push the idea of setting up of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in which India will be the second largest shareholder after China.
It is evident that China is opening up, as our delegation was given a rare opportunity to visit the Academy of Armored Force Engineering Institute of PLA to interact with Deputy Commandant Sr. Col. Mr. Liu Degang and get a closer look at the Chinese main battle tanks and other army vehicles.
A visit to China’s show case city ‘Pudong ‘, a walk on the famous Nanjing Gu avenue in Shanghai, glimpses of ever glittering skyscrapers on the banks of river Hangpu and a travel by bullet train running at the speed of 304 km per hour from Shanghai to Beijing, were proof enough of China’s robust achievements that India has much to learn from. The bullet train covered a distance of 1207 km in exactly 5 hours and 5 minutes. According to the latest reports in Fortune magazine, ”China has built 6900 miles of tracks for bullet trains. The ridership has gone up from 237,000 (2007) to 2.5 million last year. China is investing more than $128 billion dollars in domestic railway construction in 2015. Food for thought indeed for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu!

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Reconnecting to Central Asia: Modi’s visit to Stans states a game-changer

- by Manish Chand

If I say Amir Khusrau is our poet, I would be stoned in India,” the Tajik ambassador said recently in New Delhi, a shade dramatically. In Dushanbe, don’t be surprised if Tajiks recite to you soulful couplets of Zebn-un-Nisa, Aurangzeb’s eldest daughter better known by her pen-name Makhfil (The Hidden One). Mahabharata and Ramayana are prime time shows on Uzbek TV. And this will be a revelation for those not in the know: on Valentine’s Day, Uzbeks celebrate their love for the 16th century Mughal emperor Babur.
From Bollywood and kathak to yoga and Hindi, Central Asia is suffused with the glow of Indian culture and spirituality. It was, therefore, fitting when India launched its Connect Central Asia policy in 2012 as the two regions have been conjoined intimately through historical and cultural ties for centuries. It’s a relationship that has been enriched by culture and poetry, but geopolitically it’s only now this strategically located region is zooming back into the focus of India’s diplomatic-strategic establishment. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the five Central Asian states is a compelling statement of India’s reawakened interest in the region that is critical to the country’s interlinked strategic, economic and energy interests. The forthcoming visit of Mr Modi, the first by an Indian prime minister to all five post-Soviet Stans states in one go, is a game-changer of sorts that’s set to transform India’s multifarious relations with the energy-rich Central Asian region, where China has firmly positioned itself as the leading economic power and dispenser of largesse.

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