If there is one issue that has dominated the meetings leading up to the Asean and East Asia summits this week, it has been the South China Sea dispute, and the subject refused to escape even the bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
After India’s oil and gas related activities off the coast of Vietnam irked Chinese authorities in past weeks, even provoking some vitriolic from Beijing, Singh on Friday reassured his counterpart that there was no overriding strategic intent on New Delhi’s part in the disputed waters.
The Prime Minister reiterated that the “exploration of oil and gas in the South China Sea by India is purely a commercial activity,” the External Affairs Ministry’s Secretary (East) Sanjay Singh said, after Wen brought up the issue with respect to India’s engagement with the 18-member East Asia Summit.
“The Prime Minister observed that the issues of sovereignty should be resolved according to international law and practice,” Singh added, referring to the ongoing tussle over territory in the littoral waters, primarily between China, Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia.
Chinese authorities had reacted aversely to the agreement between ONGC and PetroVietnam for exploration in the South China Sea, which was signed during Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang’s visit to India last month, claiming Beijing had “indisputable sovereignty” over the resource-rich maritime passage, among the world’s busiest.
In that context, Singh’s comment on Friday should go some way in calming Chinese fears over increasing Indian influence in the South China Sea.
On the whole, though, the 55-minute meeting between the two leaders is understood to have been cordial. In his opening remarks, Singh mentioned that he had “benefitted enormously” from the conversations with the Chinese Premier. The two leaders met twice last year, on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Hanoi and then later, when Wen visited India in December.
Wen, on his part, repeated Singh’s earlier statement that “there is enough space in the world for both India and China” to grow and develop, while adding that there were many areas where both countries could engage in mutually beneficial relations. He also termed his visit to India last year as a “milestone”.