A New Relationship Era Between Two Asian Giants
POLITICS /
President of the People’s
Republic of China Xi Jinping concluded his two-day informal summit with Modi on
Saturday, October 12, 2019. The duo held discussions on wide-ranging issues and
exhumed confidence in strengthening bilateral ties between the two nations at
Mamallapuram near Chennai. Now, the hotly debated point is will the summit
result in any positive outcome for India? History stands testimonial to the
fact that in spite of Indian efforts to improve relationships with China, the
Chinese have always tried to belittle India in the UN and preferred
Pakistan over India. Against the backdrop of the USA-China trade war, the
President Xi Jinping trip is being viewed as an attempt to explore
opportunities for more significant concessions for Chinese products in India.
Why the doubt?
India and China, the two Asian
giants, have nothing in common other than a population of over a billion. Just
as two swords cannot be contained in one sheath, the same is the case with
India and China. Both vie for supremacy in Asia and are engaged in a tug of war
for being a global leader. Both view each other with suspicion and China, a
close ally of India’s bête noire Pakistan, openly sides with Pakistan in the UN
and other international forums and seldom misses an opportunity to belittle
India. Ignoring international efforts to clamp down on cross-border terrorism,
China’s repeated attempts to block Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar’s
designation as a global terrorist is just a pointer in this direction.
Critics of the summit say one
of the big disappointments of Wuhan Summit has been the reluctance of China to
take tangible steps to ease non-tariff barriers for the entry of Indian IT and
pharmaceuticals as well as Indian agriculture exports into the Chinese market
to address the massive trade imbalance. Indian companies remain sceptical of
the recent agreement on traditional medicine and expressed apprehensions over
policy changes on the ground levels.
In such a scenario, political
and economic observers in India are puzzled if Xi Jinping’s informal summit
with Modi and discussions on broad-ranging issues will translate into any
positive gain for India.
According to political
observers, President Xi Jinping’s trip is an attempt to explore opportunities
for more significant concessions to Chinese products in the Indian market, due
to the USA-China trade war. On the conclusion of his two-day informal summit
with Modi on Saturday October 12, 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and
Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to evolve a broad-based economic mechanism
to bridge India’s swelling trade deficit with China and vowed to strengthen
defence cooperation while negotiating disputative issues pragmatically with
sensitivity to each other’s core concerns.
The critiques said that after
two informal summits, both sides have not made progress in resolving their key
outstanding differences, such as the boundary dispute on the Doklam plateau
near the India-China-Bhutan tri-junction, the trade deficit, and China’s
support for Pakistan at the UN over the Kashmir dispute. The only silver lining
appears to be Xi’s suggestion to Modi that “differences should not weaken the
overall situation of bilateral cooperation and differences that could not be
resolved should be appropriately managed.”
According to political
observers, summits should be followed by outcomes to instil confidence in the
relationship. From Wuhan
to Chennai, it appears they are moving in the right direction, but tangible
results have not been experienced so far.
Xi invited Modi to visit China
in 2020 for a third summit to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the
establishment of diplomatic relations. The two leaders agreed to make it
memorable by holding 70 events in India and China, with several high-level
visits in the works. In spite of the bonhomie shown by the two leaders, there
are numerous pitfalls, and the road ahead for India and China is long and topsy
turvy. Will
all these exercises result in a great and fruitful relationship between the two
nations, time can only tell. A New Relationship Era Between Two Asian Giants
Comments