“On India-China Relations: The Way Forward”
Speech by Nirupama Rao, Ambassador of India to China
at Fudan University
on December 4, 2008
Thank you for giving me this opportunity
to share with you my reflections on the state of India-China bilateral relations. Situated at the heart of what is
arguably China’s most
vibrant, most international and most enchanting metropolis, Fudan University
is a fitting embodiment of the rhythm and pulse of Shanghai. The tradition of distinctive
scholarship and erudition associated with the University has drawn the best and
the brightest from China
and abroad ---- bridging every pedagogic divide ---- making it a veritable repository
of talent and potential of the entire country. It is no wonder that some of the most
insightful commentaries on matters of state and diplomatic importance are
associated with members of this prestigious university, who, I am sure, also
provide significant academic inputs to policy-making. I am also happy to note
that Fudan University
has established and nurtured a tradition of India studies in recent times,
under the able stewardship of Professor Shen Dingli and his colleagues. It is a
privilege to speak to this distinguished audience and here, I shall attempt to
give you a frank and fair assessment of our ties today, their potential and
promise.
I want to take the visit of former Indian
Prime Minister Shri Rajiv Gandhi to China almost twenty years ago to
this day as our point of departure. As a mid-ranking delegate in that
history-making visit, I still recall vividly the intoxicating sense of
excitement and anticipation we felt as our leaders were photographed in their
celebrated ‘long handshake’. The visit signified a substantive overture from India to move ahead, shedding past reservations
in our relationship, in order to forge ties that were oriented towards the 21st
century, and the rise of India
and China
on the global stage. The history
and experiences of the last twenty years has made that visit and its approach
look prophetic. Today, our two countries have increasingly come to be
recognized as attaining that potential, that voice and influence that was denied
to them by the forces of history in times past. In today’s increasingly globalized
world, the billion-pluses on either side of the Himalayas
could not have afforded to remain aloof to the commercial potential or cultural
appeal of the other and make our contacts contingent on prior settlement of the
boundary question. Thus, the visit of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi remains a
defining point in India-China relations, a historic opening that unveiled new
vistas for all-round cooperation.
Today, there is an overarching consensus
across India’s political
spectrum that an efficiently transacted and well-balanced relationship with China is vital to India. It is heartening to see
similar sentiments expressed by the top leaders in China,
who have defined ties with India
as a strategic policy of their country. Our leaders today are meeting with
increasing frequency, as befits the two great nations. Our two governments have
decided to characterize our engagement in the changed geo-political and
geo-economic scenario as a Strategic and Cooperative Partnership for peace and
prosperity. This means that we should not only take a strategic and long-term
view of our bilateral ties in their multiple dimensions, but should constantly
bear in mind our converging worldview of global, international and regional
issues and events and give full play to our role as the two largest developing
nations.
A few things stand out in this
partnership. First, the pace of change. Only over two decades ago, it would be
rare and radical for any discourse on contemporary India-China bilateral
relations to dwell on anything other than the boundary question. Today, on the
other hand, we are engaged in a constructive dialogue on a number of issues,
including political, economic, cultural, people-to-people and military
cooperation. Such widening and broad-basing has also been accompanied by
significant deepening of ties. Today, we have much more substantive
interactions between the two governments, much deeper understanding of each
other's positions on key issues, much stronger desire to learn from each other
and much more acknowledgement of the common objectives and shared destiny of
the two countries in their developmental processes. Trade, which was miniscule
at the beginning of the 1990s, is now driving our overall bilateral ties, with China
emerging as our largest trading partner last year.
Second, the nature of stakes and
stakeholders. The relations between India
and China
today are not purely a function of actions of the two governments. Indeed, a
significant source of energy and dynamism in our ties remains the civil
society, especially the business class. With growing economic and commercial
ties, increase in physical connectivity as well as a rapid and unprecedented
flow of ideas, our two societies are today involved like never before in
shaping their ties. Globalization has redrawn the nature of actors and
redefined relations between states in the process. Scholars like those present
here are also strong stakeholders in our ties.
Third, the dimensions of relations.
Bilateral interactions are not the only dimension of our engagement today.
Indeed, the inspiration for the creation of a Strategic and Cooperative
Partnership came from a recognition that our relations were increasingly
assuming global and strategic connotations. We followed up on this by
outlining, during the visit of our Prime Minister to China in January this year, a
common vision of our partnership for the 21st century. Today, in the
multilateral and international arena, whether it is the climate change debate
or summits to decide the future of global finance and economy, we find
ourselves adopting similar positions on issues of common concern to the
developing world. We are also engaged in useful consultation and coordination
on regional issues like Myanmar
with the common objective of maintaining peace, stability and prosperity in our
wider neighbourhood.
Finally, the very nature of the India-China
discourse. Today, a growing body of scholarship as well as policy-making in our
two countries and beyond is devoted to the study of India-China interaction and
its prognosis. This extraordinary interest in our relations today only goes to
show that our engagement can materially affect the lives of our people and
perhaps the course of the world. By virtue of sheer numbers, our two countries
are bound to make their presence felt. The development dynamics, in which each
country acts as a spur on the other and holds out a model worthy of serious
study by the other, puts the discourse in correct perspective. At a time when
both our countries are busy eradicating poverty and ensuring better living
standards for our citizens, our Strategic and Cooperative Partnership must
reflect the agenda of inclusive development as its biggest motivator.
The prerequisite for sustained
development is peace and stability, both internally as well as in our
neighbourhood and the world at large. We have maintained peace and tranquility
in our borders through a series of CBMs and it will be our aim to further reinforce
this trend. However, with geographical distances shrinking in salience, the
notion of peace as an enabler of development is expanding to include within its
purview much more than our border areas. Thus, we need to preserve regional and
world peace and stability, prevent undesirable shocks, and work to make the
existing world order more sustainable and equitable in the light of contemporary realities.
Our cooperation can range from maintaining peace and stability on our borders to
effective cooperation within the UN and the global community, to countering the
scourge of terrorism, to disarmament, non-proliferation and elimination of
weapons of mass destruction through to non-weaponization of the outer space.
China and India
joining hands can not only safeguard their own interests but also that of other
developing nations. One of the ways in which development could potentially be
denied to us is by creation of new rules of the game. There are several
manifestations of this, be it the attempts by some countries to bypass the Bali
Roadmap for long-term cooperation on Climate Change under the UN Framework
Convention or the new round of trade protectionism in the West. We need to work
harder for early conclusion of the Doha Development Round and ensure that the
interests of the developing countries find appropriate reflection. The issue of
energy security is a challenge common to both India
and China;
and here, the context of climate change cannot be ignored. We need to work
together to ensure easier and more affordable access to technology that is
clean and sustainable and on research and development in renewable sources of
energy. These are only some of the challenges in the development debate. There
are bound to be more such challenges, which India
and China
will have to face from the same side of the divide.
Does it mean that our Strategic and
Cooperative Partnership is all about cooperation and no conflict of interests,
real or perceived? To make a fair assessment about today’s diplomacy, where
national interests and realpolitik dictate action of state players, no relation
that is intense enough to be called a strategic partnership could lend itself
to simplistic portrayal in dichotomous terms of competition and cooperation.
There will always be overlaps between competition and cooperation. A fair
amount of healthy competition is not necessarily bad and can indeed lead to
more meaningful cooperation. Therefore, let me share with you my personal
assessment on some of the potential points of friction, in the hope that
greater understanding of each other’s concerns will help alleviate differences
and reduce mutual suspicions.
It would be difficult to wish away
history even as we seek to draw lessons from it. For both countries, settlement
of the outstanding boundary question is crucial and important for realizing the
full potential of cooperation. It is also a sensitive issue in both countries. Military
means can never be an acceptable option for settlement; nor will they ever be.
But how do we ensure that both sides are better off at the end of the peaceful
political settlement process that we have launched? As strategic partners, the
key lies in having the courage and vision to take into account and accommodate
reasonable interests of each other. At the same time, innovative ideas that
create win-win for both sides and ensure lasting and enduring peace on our
borders could also be explored using the creative genius of our two peoples.
The salience of the boundary issue in our
overall relations may be reduced over time, but speculation about each other’s
intentions and strategic goals persists. This is especially true in the
military field. Despite several CBMs and increasing contacts between our
defence forces, the degree of mutual trust must be increased. We in India
are ready to interact peacefully with the Chinese Armed Forces at all levels in
a more meaningful and transparent manner, but we still have distances to cover
in this regard. Difficulties faced
in the past should not be inhibiting factors in the development of a mature and
trust-building dialogue between the military establishments of our two
countries. On occasions, commentaries appear in the public domain that reflect
a trust deficit. This applies on
both sides. We should facilitate a
healthy and friendly debate between intellectual establishments and think-tanks
on both sides so as to clear the air of misunderstandings.
Political distrust and suspicion may be
gradually diluting with enhanced contacts and dialogues at diplomatic and
political levels which are not signs of vulnerability but symptoms of increasing
maturity and confidence. On an issue of critical importance and serious concern
for China and also of emotional and spiritual appeal for many Indians, namely
the Tibet issue and the presence of the Dalai Lama in India, our government has
shown through action, including at the time of the Tibet disturbances in March
this year, that we do not allow Indian soil to be used for anti-China political
activities. On the Taiwan
issue, our position has been consistently supportive of the principle of one China.
We in India
appreciate China’s
assistance by way of provision of hydrological data which has helped flood
prevention and mitigation downstream in India; its import has been much
more than technical discussion involving experts. China
joining the NSG consensus in September this year to allow nuclear trade between
India and NSG members was
also a positive step, though lack of open articulation of support by China
in advance kept people guessing till the last hours, and was the cause of some
concern. At the same time, China’s
political confidence-building will get fortified in India were its support to our
permanent membership of a reformed UN Security Council more forthcoming. An
open and unambiguous statement by China
in this regard will mean a lot to India
and be the most fitting demonstration of China’s commitment to our Strategic
and Cooperative Partnership.
In the economic realm, even as we
congratulate ourselves on the fast growth in trade, questions about
sustainability remain in the absence of diversity in our trade basket. At the
moment, natural resources constitute the overwhelming proportion of our export
to China, and China’s
appetite for iron ore has been a happy development for our mining industry.
With the demand for natural resources falling with what is likely to be a
global recession, however, the issue of trade pattern will come under increased
scrutiny. A section of the Indian industry is also concerned about the
mysterious “China Price”, closure of businesses and loss of livelihood seen to
be due to competition from China.
The existence of non-tariff barriers in China is also a dampener for Indian
traders. All these issues including more import of agricultural products from India need to be dealt with properly to make
trade more sustainable and balanced, which will help create better conditions
for consideration of the issue of China’s market economy status. I
know there are also misgivings among Chinese investors about India’s FDI rules but let me assure you that
while India
has industry-specific FDI policies ---- something that all sovereign nations
have in keeping with their national priorities ---- there are no
country-specific restrictions.
Then there are prospective issues, which
could potentially lead to collision of Indian and Chinese interests. Some talk
about global search for limited and vital natural resources ranging from oil
and gas to timber by two developing behemoths of India
and China
inevitably leading to clashes. This need not be so, as our cooperation in
exploring hydrocarbon in third countries like Sudan has shown. Even if some
aggressive acquisition moves by Chinese companies have hurt Indian commercial
and energy interests, for instance in Kazakhstan, to imagine a
politically-motivated scramble for resources played in a global theatre on the
lines of 19th century models is neither likely in this age of smooth
resource transactions nor appealing to our countries who have borne the brunt
of the West’s imperialist ambitions.
Then there is the question of possible
geopolitical alliances to act against each other. China
sounds concerned about a possible India-US alliance or an arc of democracies
against China, but as any
serious student of India’s
diplomatic and national strategy will testify, western notions like alliance,
encirclement and counterbalance are not part of the vocabulary of Indian
strategic thinking, which is sui generis
and fiercely independent. If at all, we tend to think more like the Chinese
adage “Near neighbours count more than distant relatives.” We on our part wish
to engage with the wider world, both near and far. It is in this belief and
confidence that we do not seriously cry foul about China’s growing engagement
in our shared neighbourhood; but as a Strategic and Cooperative Partner, I
think India can reasonably expect China to use its influence among its friends
in the region to help common prosperity in the region and end the kind of
ghastly acts of cross-border terrorism we saw only last week in Mumbai.
I have spoken frankly about issues that
have created doubts on both sides now and then. However, as long as we keep the
long-term and strategic nature of our partnership in mind, we will see the
rationale for calmly approaching such seemingly immediate issues in the
interests of the long-term objectives. The gains accrued since the visit of
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s visit I spoke about at the outset could only be a
prelude to much more than we can do together. While scope for competition and
cooperation exists side by side, the choice, of whether to make competition or
cooperation the dominant theme of India-China discourse, is ours. After all, as
the person holding our Prime Minister’s hands in that celebrated long handshake
and the father of China’s
reform and opening-up Deng Xiaoping famously said, “development is the hard
rationale.” He also said that a real Asian century will arrive only when China and India have developed. As both India and China enjoy what looks like
sustained high-growth trajectory, we must not let the opportunity of millennial
proportion slip by. The ongoing economic crisis elsewhere in the world has made
it even more important for the two of us to rediscover each other.
Let me conclude by quoting these
beautiful words from the Rig Veda:
`Samgacchadhvam
Samvadadhvam Sam vo manamsi janatam’
`Meet together, talk together: May your
minds comprehend alike.’ (Rig Veda: 10,192)
Thank you.
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