May 18 2015 : The Economic Times (Delhi)

Steady Progress in India-China Ties





There was no reason to expect huge breakthroughs

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's high-profile visit to China has broadened the base of people-to-people contacts between the two nations, improved economic ties and marked time, as has become usual in Sino-Indian interactions, on the border dispute. While some military cooperation and China's promise of support for India's entry into some Asian security and economic fora have been promised, China remains non-committal on Beijing's support for India's membership of the UN Security Council or of the Nuclear Suppliers Group. And the language on the geostrategic implications of India and China cooperating with each other, while high on the rhetoric on an Asian century , is vague on how the promised mutual respect for each other's interests will interface with India's commitment to pursue, along with the US, common interests in the South China Sea. Commonality of interests by outside powers in China's close neighbourhood is, more often than not, conflict of interests from Beij ing's point of view.New Delhi would appear to have got around the traditional objections, on security grounds, to Chinese invest ment in India's infrastructure by id entifying discrete bits of infrastruct ure, particularly in the Railways, that can absorb Chinese investment. This is welcome. So is the agreement reached to improve market access for pharmaceutical and farm exports. The most visible outcome of the visit is likely to be an increase in tourist arrivals from China. State governments would do well to spruce up their preparedness to accommodate growing armies of Chinese visitors to the places of historical significance in their region.
China has resolved its boundary problem with Russia and entered into major economic deals with that neighbour. It should, in principle, have no major problem in reaching accommodation with India as well. It is India that has to take a realistic view of the simple-enough proposition that give and take in a border negotiation will mean some `give' and prepare the political ground to avoid collisions between reality and hyper-nationalist rhetoric.