Jan 1, 2011

Wen Jiabao Visit: Defining Concerns

The stage for the visit of Premier Wen Jiabao to India was set by remarks of the Chinese envoy to India Zhang Yan a few days before Wen arrived, "China-India relations are very fragile and very easy to be damaged and very difficult to repair. Therefore, they need special care in the information age," he said possibly highlighting how the trajectory could be changed by over hype in the media. Premier Wen Jiabao in his address at the Indian Council of World Affairs aptly titled, “Working Together for New Glories of the Oriental Civilization,” said, “China and India are two big neighboring countries with different historical and cultural background and social systems. It is hardly avoidable that we may have some disagreements and differences”. 

India’s Foreign Secretary Ms Nirupama Rao markedly stated, “It is a strategic relationship that has acquired momentum over the last five decades directly after the India-China conflict over the border in 1962. And it shows no signs of diminishing. We are completely aware of this. It is not that we have sought to turn a blind eye to it when we have engaged the Chinese. What is important now is that we are directly raising issues of concern with the Chinese side in a very candid and in a very forthcoming way”.

Yet Ambassador Zhang’s remarks on fragility highlighted the current state of relations per se. “Our Prime Minister and Premier Wen Jiabao are meeting for the eleventh time. They have a strong personal chemistry, a very positive rapport, and this permeated the talks they held during this visit. Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to India in April 2005 in many ways is seen as a turning point in our ties. The personal relationship between the two Prime Ministers was also reflected when our Prime Minister hosted a private dinner in honour of Premier Wen Jiabao last night,” is how the atmospherics were described by Ms Rao.

To what extent relations between two contesting powers for the future global crown base their interaction on personal rapport between two key leaders as Dr Man Mohan Singh and Premier Wen Jiabao remains to be seen for with major differences that have arisen over the boundary issue, waters of the Brahmaputra and Jammu and Kashmir, it is apparent that the trajectory is no longer smooth.

Taking each of these one by one, on the boundary issue, India’s Foreign Secretary, Ms Nirupama Rao in an address on “India-China relations” at ORF Conference on China on 3 December accepted that there were divergences. “It is true that divergences persist. There is no denying the fact that we have a disputed border. There are legacies as well as lessons bequeathed to us by history. This is a complex problem and the cartographies that define national identity are internalized in the minds of people in both countries”.  But she gave much hope stating that both sides were committed to resolve the boundary issue, “At the same time we are making a serious attempt at trying to arrive at a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable solution to the boundary question as the recent fourteenth round of the Special Representatives talks will testify. The absence of a solution to the question is not due to lack of efforts but arises from the difficulty of the question, as any analyst in the audience can well appreciate,” she added.

Given that the situation along the India-China boundary is one of the most peaceful of all borders she also highlighted that strong CBMs were in place, “We have in place a well organized set of measures or what we call confidence building measures or CBMs to ensure peace and tranquility on the border. We are currently talking to each other on establishing more such mechanisms. There is maturity on both sides to understand the complexity of the issue and to insulate it from affecting our broader relationship. This policy on both sides I think has paid dividends and has contributed towards reducing the possibility of conflict. The dividend from this policy can be seen in other areas of our relationship”.

Management of trans-border Rivers is another problem emerging between India and China as per Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao. “Many of the rivers nourishing the plains of Northern India and also areas in North-east India arise in the highlands of the Tibetan Autonomous Region and are a source of livelihood and sustenance for millions of our people. We are alert to reports of China damming trans-border rivers and have sought assurances from China that it will take no action to negatively affect the flow of the rivers into India, and so that our rights as the lower riparian are not adversely affected. China has assured us that the projects on the Brahmaputra are run-of-the-river projects and are not meant for storing or diverting water. We look forward to working closely with China in this critical area of environmental and livelihood security,” she said at the ORF.

The third facet of concern in Sino Indian relations is the growing nexus between China and Pakistan. While underlining India’s commitment to a stable Pakistan Ms Rao underlined concerns about, “China’s role in POK, China’s J&K policy and the Sino-Pak security and nuclear relationship,” and called for understanding mutual sensitivity towards issues which impinge on sovereignty and territorial integrity.

 The litmus tests of Sino Indian relations has become the stapled visa issue that delves on the recent move by the Chinese to issue visas for citizens of the State of Jammu and Kashmir in India visas not stamped on the Passports but stapled on the plea that the State was not a part of India.

On the other hand the same was not being done for the citizens in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and therefore this has become a sensitive issue for India. The denial of visa to India’s former Army Commander commanding troops in Jammu and Kashmir, Lt Gen B S Jaswal had also become a major issue in the past and had halted military to military cooperation with India stopping a shipping meet of the navies. There have also been efforts to establish contact with separatists in Kashmir. A Chinese diplomat met moderate Hurriyat chairman on his trip to Geneva and has extended a standing invitation to him to visit Beijing.

Altering position of neutrality on Jammu and Kashmir by China will thus be the core issue for the present.  China’s gradual shift of position in respect to Jammu and Kashmir has not been very largely noticed in India in the past but the same has received much attention now that Beijing has radically altered the stand on India’s sovereignty over the state. There are also reports that the Chinese have been understating length of the border between India and China from the normal accepted one in the Indian lexicon of 4000 plus kms to over 2000 plus which may in turn radically alter the situation on the border dispute as well. While these issues have obviously not received much attention so far, there is likelihood of the same becoming a major bone of contention in the overall discourse of Sino Indian relations.

For if India alters the stand over Tibet as retribution, there will be a domino effect. Therefore it would be important to see how this relationship moves ahead for there seem to be many twists to the tale that has unfolded in the recent past.

Mr Wen Jiabao has possibly been made aware of India’s sensitivity to this issue and has indicated that a resolution would have to be worked out. Ms Nirupama Rao in the context of the Chinese Premier’s visit indicated, “As I mentioned earlier, Premier Wen Jiabao brought it up himself even before we could raise it, and we intended definitely to raise it with the Chinese. And the first point he made was that they understood that this was a serious issue. They understand the seriousness and the importance that we attach to this issue because we wanted results. We cannot accept the status quo on this. Therefore, what he told Prime Minister was that we need to sort this out, we need to sit down and discuss this, and let us get our officials to look at this more intensively with a view to resolving it as soon as possible. That is where the matter stands at the moment”.