India and China will hold the 15th round of their talks on the boundary question over the next two days, two months after these were cancelled by Beijing. At the talks, national security adviser Shiv Shanker Menon is expected to raise the issue of China’s sensitivity to Arunanchal Pradesh with his counterpart, state councilor Dai Bingguo.
According to highly placed government sources, the Indian side will point out that the ethnic origins of Indians travelling to China should not come in the way of a rapidly improving relationship, especially in the context of Arunachal Pradesh.
A sources told Business Standard: “We are discussing the entire boundary question with China, from the contested Aksai Chin sector in Jammu & Kashmir in the north to Arunachal Pradesh, especially Tawang district, in the east. The negotiations are ongoing. We will explain to the Chinese that there is no need for them to be so sensitive to people who hail from areas that are disputed, such as Arunachal Pradesh.
“Such setbacks and controversies do not behove the remarkable progress in relations between Asia’s largest powers.”
India’s decision to raise the issue of Arunachal Pradesh comes in the wake of it sacrificing an IAF officer, Group Captain Mohonto Panging, from a tri-services delegation visit to China around 10 days ago. The IAF officer, posted in Jorhat, hails from Arunachal Pradesh.
The ministry of defence had at the time asked the ministry of external affairs to clear a 30-member delegation to China, but allegedly failed to inform the MEA that one of the officers was of Arunachali origin. When the Chinese failed to clear Group Captain Panging’s visa, on the grounds that he hailed from a territory that was contested between India and China, India was forced to prune the delegation to half. Group Captain Panging was also dropped from the China visit.
India’s gesture of accommodation to China came at a considerable loss of face, admitted government sources. But they pointed out that India could not afford to take the risk of China cancelling the boundary talks with India again.
In November 2011, Beijing cancelled the talks between Menon and Dai on the grounds that Dai was going to be present in Delhi at the same time the Dalai Lama would be inaugurating a Buddhist conference in the capital.
Having assuaged China’s ruffled feathers, Delhi is expected to make full use of Dai’s visit to get a sense of China’s vision of the world, especially South Asia. Premier Wen Jiabao has just concluded a flying visit to Nepal – en route to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE – where he announced a one-time special grant of $20 million, besides a promised grant assistance of approximately $100 million over three years.
Clearly, as China continues its relentless rise to become a world power, India’s attitude towards its powerful neighbour has also undergone a change. Delhi’s confidence at sustaining seven per cent growth this year is tempered by the fact that the $67-billion trade basket with China is heavily weighted against India.
Moreover, most of the goods in India’s basket consists of primary commodities such as iron ore, while China’s much more diversified basket includes everything from power-generation equipment to soft toys.
Both Menon and Dai sought to set the stage for the conduct of the bilateral relationship for 2012 with speeches at the Chinese embassy in Delhi and the Indian embassy in Beijing, respectively, over the last 10 days.
Both countries had intentionally arranged to have their senior diplomats make these speeches at the other country’s embassy so as to remove public apprehension around the growing ugliness of their recent spats. Indian officials said China agreed that it was as much in its interest not to rock the boat with India and contain emerging differences.
Menon said in his Chinese embassy speech there was “no denying” that the boundary question was a “difficult issue,” but that a number of mechanisms had been put in place to ensure the border stayed peaceful in the interim.
“On the settlement itself, we are in the second stage of the three stage process of agreeing principles, a framework and finally a boundary line,” Menon said. India had in fact taken a leaf out of China’s book, in its emphasis of a “peaceful periphery, a stable and benign world environment and continued prosperity among our economic partners, which are of utmost importance to both of us,” he said.
Interestingly, some “vocal experts in our two countries” believed that India and China were bound to be strategic adversaries, but Menon found “such determinism misplaced.” India is already one of China’s most important markets for project exports, with a cumulative value of contracted projects at $53.5 billion and turnover realized at $24.6 billion.
“What is less noticed is the range of contact between our two societies. For instance, over 7,000 Indian students are studying in China today. This scale of interaction never occurred before in history,” he added.
In Beijing last week, at the inauguration of the new Indian embassy, Dai returned the compliment. He pointed out that he had been present at the inauguration of all three premises of the Indian embassy in China, from 1950 onwards.
“Looking ahead, China-India relations will be increasingly important for our two countries, the region and the world. We must follow the call of our times for peace and development bearing in minds the interest of the Chinese and Indian people and our overall relations,” Dai said.
“…. Certainly we have our share of challenges. A settlement of boundary question still awaits us…. We must remain continuously sensitive to mutual concerns.”
