India-China relations | India Writes

In OBOR shadow, Modi-Xi meeting in Astana

June 9, 2017June 9, 2017 - by India Writes Network

Amid Belt and Road concerns in New Delhi and Beijing’s continuing ambivalence over India’s NSG membership, the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Kazakh capital Astana will be watched closely in the region.
The Modi-Xi meeting will be the first high-level contact between the two leaders since they last met on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Goa in October last year. At that point, the two leaders had decided to move beyond their differences over New Delhi’s NSG membership to concentrate on expanding economic relationship. But since then, bilateral relations between the two Asian giants have come under further strain due to a host of reasons, including Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh, the visit of a high-profile Taiwanese delegation to India and New Delhi’s uncompromising opposition to One Belt, One Road project.

Dalai Lama in Arunachal: India asks China to refrain from artificial controversy

April 5, 2017April 5, 2017 - by India Writes Network

With an upset China watching closely, Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has begun a week-long visit to India’s northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh. The visit has raised the hackles in Beijing and looks set to fuel fresh tensions in Sino-Indian ties. Brushing aside Beijing’s strong objections, India has asked China to refrain from stoking “an artificial controversy” around the Dalai Lama’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh, a region in the eastern Himalayas China claims as its own and regularly denounces foreign leaders’ visits to the place as attempts to bolster India’s territorial claims. India has consistently maintained that Arunachal Pradesh is its integral part and that China should respect that.
Four days ago, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang had told the media in Beijing that “China resolutely opposes the 14th Dalai Lama visiting border regions disputed by China and India” and warned that this would “seriously damage” bilateral relations. He dubbed the Dalai Lama as a “dangerous separatist” and urged India to “avoid taking any actions that would further complicate the border issue.” On April 4, the Chinese state media reacted vehemently, saying India “is deliberately risking confrontation” with China by allowing the Dalai Lama to visit Arunachal Pradesh and warned that there will be “severe consequences” in bilateral ties if the visit was allowed.
The trip by the Dalai Lama to Arunachal Pradesh is expected to ratchet up tensions between New Delhi and Beijing, which are already festering over a host of strategic issues such as the long-standing unsettled border demarcation between India and China, China’s growing ties with Pakistan and some other South Asian countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives which India considers as its own backyard. Analysts say that while India officially would not like any political colour to be attributed to the Dalai Lama’s visit, it is sending a clear message that China has not respected India’s sensitivities in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir by including the disputed territory in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Why India is wary of CPEC & OBOR: It’s sovereignty issue

January 19, 2017January 29, 2017 - by Manish Chand

The China challenge or the China threat emerged as a leitmotif in a high-profile international conference in New Delhi, with India being upfront about its political differences with Beijing and asking the latter to respect India’s sovereignty in the course of building the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
India, however, took care to eschew a negative adversarial construct of India-China relations, with Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar making it clear that in New Delhi’s assessment, the rise of India and China can be “mutually supportive.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on his part, outlined briefly a template of harmonious India-China relations, saying “respect and sensitivity for each other’s core interests” holds the key.
“China is very sensitive on matters concerning its sovereignty. We expect they will respect other people’s sovereignty,” said Mr Jaishankar at the second edition of Raisina Dialogue, co-organised by India’s Ministry of External Affairs and Observer Research Foundation.

How India and China can create a multi-polar Asia

December 12, 2016December 12, 2016 - 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.

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

October 15, 2016November 5, 2016 - 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.

Amid strains in ties, Modi to visit China, Xi to visit India

August 8, 2016August 8, 2016 - by Manish Chand

Amid recent strains in relations between the two Asian giants over a host of issues, including New Delhi’s stalled membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, India and China are preparing the ground for the visits of their leaders to each other’s country this year.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to visit China for the 11th G20 summit of major economies in the scenic city of Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, on September 4-5. Mr Modi is expected to hold bilateral talks with China’s President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 summit. This is the first time China is hosting the G20 summit of the world’s top economies which is expected to break “a new path” for global economic growth.
President Xi will be visiting India for the 8th BRICS summit India will host in the coastal city of Goa October 5-6.
South China Sea & NSG
Against this backdrop, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi will be in India on August 13 to firm up a substantive agenda for the two-way visits by the leaders of the two neighbouring countries.
The next few weeks are, therefore, going to see intense diplomatic manouevering and a possible trade-off between the two Asian neighbours to ensure that trust deficit does not sharpen between them over the NSG issue, impacting the larger relationship.