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Its time for a postmortem
Despite his charm offensive that looks like a remix of the India-China friendship chant hummed more than five decades back, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's second Indian trip ended last week with many nice words, bumper trade deals, but hardly anything else otherwise.
At the end of his three-day Indian sojourn, Wen reiterated what he told Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his trip to Beijing in 2008; that India and China relations have "transcended beyond their bilateral dimension and have acquired global and strategic significance".
"Our ties have gone beyond bilateral scope and assumed global responsibility. When China and India have a heart-to-heart
conversation, the whole world will listen, and we have reason to be proud of that," Wen said in a public meeting India after concluding his meeting with Manmohan. "Our endeavors have caught the attention of the world. The world is undergoing major development and changes, we should seize the opportunity and lose no time in deepening our ties."
Beyond those refreshing words and an ambitious trade target, however, Wen's second India trip made little breakthrough in resolving the prickly issues dogging their relationship in the recent years.
While a section of the Chinese media termed Wen's trip "unconventional" - since traditionally both exchanged just one visit of their leaders' during their official tenure-there was no dearth of warmth though.
Hailing Wen's "close friendship" with the Indian prime minister, Wen said, "I am glad to pay an official visit to India, China's great neighbor." India and China "are friends and not rivals, we shall always be friends and never be rivals. This must be the firm conviction of every Chinese and every Indian," he added.
"We [Manmohan and Wen] have [also] reached a consensus on strengthening our strategic relationship; the pressing task now is to turn that consensus into reality. I am confident we will do it for the glory of the oriental civilization," he said.
Charming words, but according to Srikanth Kondapalli, a professor in Chinese studies at Delhi, Jawaharlal University, Wen's India trip appeared like any other business trip with the usual announcements regarding reiteration of mutual respect, enhancing trade, investment flows, cultural and educational cooperation and the like.
"It was a purely diplomatic mission that made very few attempts at addressing India's political concerns," said a former diplomat (who had served a diplomatic mission in China recently), requesting anonymity.
"So, there was no clear support on India's ambition to become a permanent member of the UNSC [United Nations Security Council]; no expressed sympathy of the 26/11 terror attacks [on Mumbai]; no mention Pakistan's involvement in exporting terrorism; and no firm assurance on disputing the outstanding border issues", he added.
According to experts, these issues are significant as far as India-China relationship is concerned. While the two Asian giants have managed to set their political differences and "forge a healthy trade relationship", says Peng Gang, a top Chinese economic diplomat in India, it is also true that it is important for the two countries "to also sort out their political differences".
Even as the two countries once claimed that that they been natural friends for decades - ever since the then Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his Chinese counterpart Mao Zedong coined the phrase "Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai" (brothers) - there has been a long legacy of tensions.
In 1962 for instance, the two countries has fought a brief war over their shared 3,500 kilometer border. Decades on, that conflict has raised its ugly head several times.
In past year though there have been some added thorns. Last year for instance, China's practice of issuing visas to people from Indian-administered Kashmir on separate pieces of paper met with intense disapproval from India since China offered the standard visas to other Indians. Since China still hasn't given any explanation for that move, in India it was perceived as China's tacit acceptance of Kashmir as a separate state.
Later India retaliated by refusing to allow a Chinese diplomat to visit its troubled northeastern state of Manipur for a lecture, while bilateral ties received its severest blow in August, when in a "tit-for-tat diplomacy" China refused a visa to a Kashmir-based general.
Beijing's cooperation with India's troubled neighbor Pakistan on missile development, cross-border infrastructure and a deep-water port have been issues that prick New Delhi.
China too is strongly critical about India providing exile to the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, and claims that India's north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh as its own.
Besides say sources from the Indian industry lobby Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), even as bilateral trade has been booming, India hasn't really benefited as much as it should have.
"Despite hard pushes China has denied greater access of Indian companies to Chinese markets," says Anjan Roy, economic adviser to the CII. Gang argues that "India too has been protective about its markets by imposing many non-trade tariff barriers."
Still, both countries managed score a win-win in area of bilateral trade.
The countries set a new bilateral trade target to more than double to $100 billion by 2015 from the 2009-10 level by increasing cooperation in many sectors. The bilateral trade between India and China was $43 billion in fiscal 2009-10 and is expected to rise to $ 60 billion this year, a 16-fold increase over the past eight years.
Experts say even as India has a negative trade balance of over $19 billion with China, the new trade target speaks volumes for the maturity with which the two countries have managed to separate their business from politics.
Deals valued at over $16 billion - and numbering more than 48 - were signed in the areas of power, telecom and financial sectors, dwarfing the $10 billion bilateral trade deals - $10 billion-India signed US President Barack Obama just a few weeks earlier.
China also agreed to help India reduce its trade deficit by removing trade barriers, and supporting Indian participation in its national and regional trade fairs, enhance exchange and cooperation of pharmaceutical supervision and expedite completion of negotiations on agriculture products.
This is why, even as Wen's India trip has left many expectations (from the Indian side at least) unfulfilled, according to Gang, it has been significant for achieving something much bigger. "The most important outcome of the premier's visit has been that it has taken the India-China relationship to another level and has set a new base for enhanced mutual trust and further cooperation," he said.
Hot coals burn under India's red carpet
Despite his charm offensive that looks like a remix of the India-China friendship chant hummed more than five decades back, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's second Indian trip ended last week with many nice words, bumper trade deals, but hardly anything else otherwise.
At the end of his three-day Indian sojourn, Wen reiterated what he told Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his trip to Beijing in 2008; that India and China relations have "transcended beyond their bilateral dimension and have acquired global and strategic significance".
"Our ties have gone beyond bilateral scope and assumed global responsibility. When China and India have a heart-to-heart
conversation, the whole world will listen, and we have reason to be proud of that," Wen said in a public meeting India after concluding his meeting with Manmohan. "Our endeavors have caught the attention of the world. The world is undergoing major development and changes, we should seize the opportunity and lose no time in deepening our ties."
Beyond those refreshing words and an ambitious trade target, however, Wen's second India trip made little breakthrough in resolving the prickly issues dogging their relationship in the recent years.
While a section of the Chinese media termed Wen's trip "unconventional" - since traditionally both exchanged just one visit of their leaders' during their official tenure-there was no dearth of warmth though.
Hailing Wen's "close friendship" with the Indian prime minister, Wen said, "I am glad to pay an official visit to India, China's great neighbor." India and China "are friends and not rivals, we shall always be friends and never be rivals. This must be the firm conviction of every Chinese and every Indian," he added.
"We [Manmohan and Wen] have [also] reached a consensus on strengthening our strategic relationship; the pressing task now is to turn that consensus into reality. I am confident we will do it for the glory of the oriental civilization," he said.
Charming words, but according to Srikanth Kondapalli, a professor in Chinese studies at Delhi, Jawaharlal University, Wen's India trip appeared like any other business trip with the usual announcements regarding reiteration of mutual respect, enhancing trade, investment flows, cultural and educational cooperation and the like.
"It was a purely diplomatic mission that made very few attempts at addressing India's political concerns," said a former diplomat (who had served a diplomatic mission in China recently), requesting anonymity.
"So, there was no clear support on India's ambition to become a permanent member of the UNSC [United Nations Security Council]; no expressed sympathy of the 26/11 terror attacks [on Mumbai]; no mention Pakistan's involvement in exporting terrorism; and no firm assurance on disputing the outstanding border issues", he added.
According to experts, these issues are significant as far as India-China relationship is concerned. While the two Asian giants have managed to set their political differences and "forge a healthy trade relationship", says Peng Gang, a top Chinese economic diplomat in India, it is also true that it is important for the two countries "to also sort out their political differences".
Even as the two countries once claimed that that they been natural friends for decades - ever since the then Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his Chinese counterpart Mao Zedong coined the phrase "Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai" (brothers) - there has been a long legacy of tensions.
In 1962 for instance, the two countries has fought a brief war over their shared 3,500 kilometer border. Decades on, that conflict has raised its ugly head several times.
In past year though there have been some added thorns. Last year for instance, China's practice of issuing visas to people from Indian-administered Kashmir on separate pieces of paper met with intense disapproval from India since China offered the standard visas to other Indians. Since China still hasn't given any explanation for that move, in India it was perceived as China's tacit acceptance of Kashmir as a separate state.
Later India retaliated by refusing to allow a Chinese diplomat to visit its troubled northeastern state of Manipur for a lecture, while bilateral ties received its severest blow in August, when in a "tit-for-tat diplomacy" China refused a visa to a Kashmir-based general.
Beijing's cooperation with India's troubled neighbor Pakistan on missile development, cross-border infrastructure and a deep-water port have been issues that prick New Delhi.
China too is strongly critical about India providing exile to the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, and claims that India's north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh as its own.
Besides say sources from the Indian industry lobby Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), even as bilateral trade has been booming, India hasn't really benefited as much as it should have.
"Despite hard pushes China has denied greater access of Indian companies to Chinese markets," says Anjan Roy, economic adviser to the CII. Gang argues that "India too has been protective about its markets by imposing many non-trade tariff barriers."
Still, both countries managed score a win-win in area of bilateral trade.
The countries set a new bilateral trade target to more than double to $100 billion by 2015 from the 2009-10 level by increasing cooperation in many sectors. The bilateral trade between India and China was $43 billion in fiscal 2009-10 and is expected to rise to $ 60 billion this year, a 16-fold increase over the past eight years.
Experts say even as India has a negative trade balance of over $19 billion with China, the new trade target speaks volumes for the maturity with which the two countries have managed to separate their business from politics.
Deals valued at over $16 billion - and numbering more than 48 - were signed in the areas of power, telecom and financial sectors, dwarfing the $10 billion bilateral trade deals - $10 billion-India signed US President Barack Obama just a few weeks earlier.
China also agreed to help India reduce its trade deficit by removing trade barriers, and supporting Indian participation in its national and regional trade fairs, enhance exchange and cooperation of pharmaceutical supervision and expedite completion of negotiations on agriculture products.
This is why, even as Wen's India trip has left many expectations (from the Indian side at least) unfulfilled, according to Gang, it has been significant for achieving something much bigger. "The most important outcome of the premier's visit has been that it has taken the India-China relationship to another level and has set a new base for enhanced mutual trust and further cooperation," he said.