BEIJING - The complex courtship dance of
Sino-Indian relations took a quick step forward on
Monday with Indian Defense Minister Pranab
Mukherjee signing a memorandum of understanding
(MoU) with his counterpart, General Cao Gangchuan,
in Beijing.
The MoU is the first such
document signed by the defense ministries of the
two countries. For decades following the border
war of 1962, India and China have viewed each
other with a fair measure of both pride and
prejudice. When India tested its nuclear bomb in
1998, the potential military and security threat
that China posed was pointed to as a
justification.
Since then much water has
flown through the Yangtze and Ganges Rivers. The
new millennium has seen the sweetening of
previously sour ties, with the neighbors
establishing a "strategic
and
cooperative" partnership, instituting political
mechanisms to resolve the boundary issue and with
trade galloping ahead toward the US$20 billion
mark.
Mukherjee's visit comes at a time
when India and China are celebrating a "friendship
year". However, it also comes at a time when
complex realignments of regional and global
geopolitics are unfolding.
The India-US
deal on civilian nuclear energy signed in March
(awaiting approval in the US Congress) has been
received coolly in Beijing, given that it is
widely seen as an attempt by the US to ally itself
with India in the ultimate hope of containing a
rising China.
China in the meantime
continues to extend military and nuclear
cooperation to Pakistan. It recently announced a
major arms sale to Islamabad, including four F-22P
frigates to the Pakistani navy.
Simultaneously, Sino-Japanese ties
continue their downward spiral, even as India and
Japan draw closer. For long a self-declared
pacifist, Japan is slowly beginning to flex its
military muscles in the region. The Japanese navy
has grown into a force of considerable reach and
sophistication, and the country recently launched
its own spy satellites.
Before beginning
his five-day trip to China on Sunday, the Indian
defense minister visited Japan, where both sides
agreed to institute regular meetings of defense
chiefs, exchange information to tackle terrorism
and proliferation and conduct joint maritime
exercises. India is also reportedly keen on
securing Japanese industry's help in its own
military modernization, something that would cause
considerable consternation in Beijing.
For
India and China, the clear challenge is to
maintain an independent foreign policy with
regards to specific nations on the basis of their
national interests, rather than being lumped
together in Cold War-style with a particular group
that attempts to contain another group. In other
words, to build trust and create healthy bilateral
ties with countries that might themselves hold
reservations about each other.
Thus, China
wants to develop a strategic relationship with
India, even as it continues its "all-weather"
friendship with Pakistan. India, in turn, must
balance its relationships with China, Japan and
the US.
Echoing this sentiment, Mukherjee
said that it is "India's foreign policy to build
friendships with everyone. Our foreign policy is
independent and we stress that we have no
territorial ambitions." His articulation in fact
sounds remarkably similar to China's "peaceful
rise" foreign policy mantra that stresses China's
friendly intentions to other countries.
Not all rosy As China and India
grow in economic and strategic importance and
begin to stretch their wings, a certain amount of
rubbing up against each other is unavoidable.
Beijing is reportedly concerned about
India's interest in establishing military bases in
Mongolia and Central Asia, while China's
cultivation of ties with Nepal, Pakistan,
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka - countries that India
views as being within its own sphere of influence
- has caused some alarm in New Delhi.
What
is needed is a genuine attempt toward mutual
accommodation that would take into account these
shifting geopolitical power plays. China's recent
observer status in the South Asian Association for
Regional Cooperation and India's at the Shanghai
Cooperation Organization are examples of such
accommodation.
The MoU signed by the two
defense ministries on Monday calls for the
institutionalization of frequent exchanges between
leaders of the Defense Ministries and the armed
forces in addition to developing an annual
calendar for holding regular joint military
exercises and training programs.
In recent
years, the two neighbors have conducted joint
naval maneuvers, but the interaction between
ground forces has been limited to border meetings
and mountaineering expeditions. There has been no
air force-to-air force contact.
According
to the MoU, "The two sides reiterate that
strengthening effective contacts in the field of
defense is of vital importance to enhancing mutual
trust and understanding between the armed forces
and ensuring a peaceful environment in which they
can pursue their respective national development
objectives."
For two nuclear-capable,
large-sized neighbors with a history of war,
devising a strategy for accommodating each other's
rise is imperative. Defense cooperation and
confidence-building measures of the kind proposed
by the Indian defense minister can only work
towards facilitating such accommodation. It is
widely hoped that Mukherjee's initiative is the
first of many.
Pallavi Aiyar is
the China correspondent for The Hindu.
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