India and China forge new relationship
Former rivals make diplomatic and economic progress as both seek wider global roles.
Diplomatic understatement was absent from the Indian subcontinent on Tuesday.
Announcements by China's Premier Wen Jiabao and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh claimed significant diplomatic progress between the two nations as Mr. Wen wound up a four day visit to India, reports the
Hindustan Times.
The world's two most populous countries each recognized the right of the other to seek a larger role on the world stage. They publicly promised to make their relations that of partners, not rivals, reports
Reuters.
Agreement was reached on issues ranging from trade and energy cooperation to a plan on how to proceed in resolving Himalayan border disputes which brought them to war in 1962. They agreed to cooperate in the search for new energy supplies to avoid a bidding war that would drive prices up. They also agreed to explore joint development of an Asian high-tech industrial zone with China manufacturing hardware and India developing software.
On India's desire for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, Wen was non-committal other than to say China supported India's "aspirations to play a '
bigger role' in the world body," reports the
Hindustan Times.
By far the most significant political agreement reached between Wen and Mr. Singh was signing a set of guiding principles on how to reach a final settlement over border disputes, says the
Hindustan Times – "to arrive at a 'package settlement' which is 'final.'"
"The two governments inked an agreement on
political guiding principles on solving the border issue," reports
China Daily.
Some key provisions are:
•No use of force or threat of force.
•Make meaningful and mutually acceptable adjustments to their respective positions.
•Take into account historical evidence, national sentiments, practical difficulties, and reasonable concerns and sensitivities and the actual state of border areas.
•Boundary lines should be along well-defined and easily identifiable natural geographical features.
Wen's visit comes on the heels of a
visit last month by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The combined visits make for heady times for India. Yet, beneath the surface of India's new popularity, "there is a
larger game at work," reported
The Christian Science Monitor at the beginning of Wen's visit to India.
Neither the US nor China can afford to ignore a growing regional player like India, or to have it working directly against them. Beijing in particular has reason to be wary of Delhi, as the US courts India to be a counterweight to a rising China. But many Indian officials and scholars say the future of Indo-Chinese relations may be less competitive and aimed more at allowing each other to grow large enough to make the world multilateral once more.
'There is no question that the US follows a doctrine of unilateralism' and that is an area of joint concern for India and China, says Mira Sinha Bhattacharjea, former director of the Institute of Chinese Studies in New Delhi. 'The bottom line is that we are the neighbors here. We share a border. I would like to see America take a wiser approach to these relations, and see the cooperation of India and China - which includes elements of competition - as a positive thing.'
Even with a peaceful resolution of border disputes, tensions will remain, continues the
Monitor.
More worrisome to Chinese negotiators ... may be the Indian-US plan for India to send its Navy to patrol the Straits of Malacca between Indonesia and Malaysia, a crucial shipping lane. China has long considered Southeast Asia to be its own backyard. Some 80 percent of Chinese oil imports flow through these straits. They are of strategic importance to China's future industrial development.
Another
reality check to the euphoria following the bilateral agreements, reports the
Times of India was the cautious reaction of Indian high-tech leaders to Wen's calls for closer ties on information technology. While touring Bangalore, India's technology hub, Wen called for India and China to "work together to launch the 'Asian century' of information technology."
Subash Menon, chief executive of Subex Systems, an Indian telecom software firm with a sales office in Beijing, had a far more cautious take, reports the
Times.
'Obviously the main issue is one of the legal structure. One is not sure at this point of time whether contracts with the Chinese firms will have legal protection. One has to watch how it evolves," Menon said.
'Our main concern is to protect the intellectual property of our product. The Chinese law is not very clear on this. The other issue is that of language. There are not many English-speaking people out there,' Menon said.
He said a majority of the Indian software firms were used to dealing with the Americans 'who are very straightforward. The only cultural commonality between India and China is patience. There are substantial differences in cultural values which compounds the problem,' he said.
Virendra Agarwal, director and senior vice-president of Satyam Computer Services, India's fourth-largest software exporter with three offices in China including Beijing, said in the report Wen's call to cooperate on software and hardware sectors did not add up. "India has missed the hardware bus and there are no efforts to catch up on that front," he said.
Also...
•
Indian pilots to match skills against US F-16s Hindustan times (
Hindustan Times)
•
China premier hits back at Japan (
BBC)
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