Today, China is India’s largest trading partner in the world and India is China’s seventh largest export destination. And nor is this relationship limited to only trade. There are presently 723 Indian projects in China with well known names like Infosys, TCS, APTECH, Wipro, Mahindra and Mahindra, Dr. Reddy’s, Suzlon Energy, Reliance Industries and many others all active in China. As many as 10 Indian banks have operations in China. Similarly, more than 100 Chinese companies have operations in India ranging from automobiles, energy, machinery, telecom to steel. A company like Huawei has located its international R&D center in Bangalore that employs over 2000 Indian IT professional.
At the turn of the millennium, the world is changing through information technology, and economic interdependence. They realize that autonomous behavior in internal and external relations is no longer feasible in the international arena. The need to assure neighbours of their interests through confidence building measures, placing ancient disputes in correct perspective, reaching for consensus instead of conflict resolution by force are the needs of the day. India and China both realize that the need for military strength commensurate with their security and the anxieties of neighbours. The reality after the Cold War is of a world order based on equity amongst states and constructive engagement through trade and economic development. Even as some hegemonic and other similar mindsets are still to be seen, the future of inter-state relations is well set on the course of cooperation. China and India realize the need for cooperation and that for moving away from old animosities through mutual agreements. They have resolved to find solutions to their disputes through negotiations. Indian initiatives in South Asia and Chinese efforts in finding solutions to its issues of contention with Russia, Japan, and USA and in the Asia Pacific are evidence of their new awareness. In some ways China is adding a healthy dose of “Idealist” balance to its policies. India on the other hand is introducing an element of “Realist” pragmatism to its policies. They in the process are going beyond the culture constraints of the past.
Days ahead of his visit to India, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s emphasis on cordial India-China ties needs to be seen for what it is. Coming close on the heels of the weeks-long border stand-off between the two countries in Ladakh, it may be a good-cop-bad-cop routine to get India to sign on to a border cooperation agreement, which would prevent India from reinforcing its side of the border. But equally, this may be the voice of a new leadership generation taking over in China. Both Li and President Xi Jinping joined politics after the 1962 Indo-China war, and may not be burdened by the baggage of a bellicose bilateral history. If the latter is the case, then it’s a golden opportunity for New Delhi to seize and script a fresh, more positive chapter in India-China relations before they harden again. That’s also indicated by the first official Chinese blue book on India, which projects the latter as an
important fast-growing regional economy. What should New Delhi do in such circumstances? It should seek to go beyond any border cooperation agreement the Chinese may be seeking, by offering to resolve the border issue permanently.
For this the Indian leadership must become more realistic about its relationship with China. It cannot hold on to shibboleths of the past and expect to resolve bilateral issues in the 21st century. New Delhi must realize that Beijing never accepted the McMahon Line — agreed between the British and Tibet — as the boundary between India and China. Hence, it should be realistic about its claims on Chinese-administered Aksai Chin, just as Beijing should be realistic about its claims on Arunachal Pradesh. Converting the Line of Actual Control into the international border — adjusted for geographical obstacles — is the best possible solution to this thorny issue.
Resolving the border will have far-reaching effects, defusing military confrontation along it and placing India-China relations in a different orbit. And it’s doable too, as China has resolved boundary issues with many of its neighbours. Since Islamabad tends to look to Beijing for guidance and succour, resolving the border with China will lead to a transformation of the way India-Pakistan disputes are looked at, paving the way for their solution as well. That’s the big prize at which Indian diplomacy must aim — for which it needs to abandon its cautious, timorous, status quoist shell. Immense scope lies for both India and China for constructive and cooperative partnership in various fields. We have close coordination and cooperation on burning international issues such as on climate change, and in the G-20, we have cooperated well in giving developing nations more say in the global financial governance architecture. Till December last year, the total contractual investment of projects being implemented by Chinese companies in India was US $ 55 billion covering such sectors as energy, aluminium and steel. These economic relations have blossomed as they are backed by a host of bilateral agreements including BIPPA signed in 2006 and Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement signed in 1994. India and China both must realize the need to adapt to these tectonic changes, if they hope to develop as economically stable and politically lasting entities. The leadership in both states is aware of the need to ensure the social and economic well-being of their peoples. In that lies real security and stability, the two essential conditions for development.
