Transformative technology for the coordinated improvement of agricultural yields - Digital Journal
Holiday traditions in the Yakima Valley help build communityIndiana aims to limit turnovers vs. Minnesota
The hallmark of mature leaders is to resolve disputes peacefully and not let them escalate into conflicts. Even when a historically inherited dispute triggers a conflict, they make every effort to ensure that it is diffused through dialogue and does not balloon into a bigger conflict. On this test of maturity, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China’s President Xi Jinping have fared admirably. The military standoff between the two countries, triggered by the violent confrontation in the Galwan Valley in June 2020, has ended because of the political authority they lent to a disengagement agreement that was reached after a series of patient talks between the military and diplomatic teams of the two countries. Shun hostility, pursue cooperation Now, the two leaders are called upon to show the same wisdom and responsibility to address a bigger challenge. Will they make a strategic determination to move India-China relations uninterruptedly in the direction of comprehensive and mutually beneficial cooperation? Or will they allow the accumulated deposit of mutual distrust to drag the ties in the opposite direction of minimal cooperation and increased rivalry? Pursuit of the second option surely has the danger of sparking future military clashes, especially since the inherited boundary dispute is still not settled. Any new clash, small or big, will wreck peace and tranquillity along the Line of Actual Control, which is a precondition for bilateral cooperation to flourish. At a time when the world has entered an era of growing geopolitical turbulence and uncertainty, India-China hostility will add to the load of global woes. On the other hand, cooperation will not only bring immense mutual gains but also make the world a better and safer place. This is the strategic choice Mr. Modi and Mr. Xi will have to make. Making the right choice requires bold new thinking in New Delhi and Beijing. But this is not possible unless both make an honest effort to remove mutual apprehension that one is acting against the other’s core interests. Specifically, China must do three things. One, it must demonstrably convince India that it poses no threat to its national security, now or in the future — on its own or in alliance with its “all-weather friend” Pakistan. Beijing’s equivocation to condemn Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in Kashmir and elsewhere in India has made common Indians view China as an unfriendly nation. Second, China must not act in a manner that makes India suspect that it seeks to contain India’s rise in Asia and on the global scene. As evidence, it should forcefully advocate the inclusion of India, now the world’s most populous nation, as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Third, Beijing must respect India as an equal pole in a multipolar Asia and a multipolar world, knowing that India will never accept a subordinate position vis-à-vis any country in the world, including China. On its part, India too must do three things. First, India must not be guided by the misleading notion of “power asymmetry” between the two countries, and, hence, join hands with the United States to augment its own strength (through confrontational initiatives such as the Quad) in dealing with the “China threat”. The Quad (India, Japan, Australia and the U.S.) has made China think that New Delhi has joined Washington’s “Contain China” strategy. Second, India must not deviate from its “One China” policy by appearing to support Taiwan’s independence or to play the “Tibet” card. Third, it does not behove a great and independent nation such as India to allow the West’s anti-China narratives to shape the Indian media’s and academia’s — hence our people’s — thinking about its neighbour. In this writer’s frequent visits to China, he has seen far less anti-India feelings among Chinese people than is the case vice versa. This is because Indian TV channels and newspapers (with some exceptions) indulge in constant anti-China propaganda. India’s ruling party and the government do nothing to stop this. The Chinese media, even though it is controlled by the communist party, rarely does so. There is nothing in the millennia-old history of the two civilisations that predestines India and China to become adversaries and rivals, much less enemies. Rather, the profound wisdom of their civilisations requires the world’s two most populous nations in the world to serve certain higher ideals of humanity — peace, inclusive global development that prioritises eradication of poverty everywhere, democratic global governance, saving the planet from the climate crisis, and cultural-spiritual rejuvenation of the entire human race. We should not allow cynical practitioners of “realpolitik” on both sides, who argue that idealism has no place in the conduct of diplomacy, to hijack the India-China discourse. Trust-building ideas Now is the time for the world’s second largest and soon-to-be third largest economies to become partners in domestic development. With the U.S. under Trump 2.0 threatening to hike tariffs on Chinese imports, India’s large and fast-expanding market offers a growth opportunity to China’s slowing economy. Similarly, China with its formidable strengths in infrastructure modernisation, green energy, electric vehicles and several other breakthrough technologies provides greater opportunities than any other country for the realisation of India’s aspiration to become a ‘Viksit Bharat’ (developed nation). India and China are Global South countries. As such, their cooperation can greatly help other developing countries and, especially, underdeveloped countries, in Asia, Africa and Latin America. If India and China enhance convergence in their foreign policies, they can bring greater stability, predictability and fairness to global governance, which is now becoming increasingly ineffectual. For example, should not the two countries work together to end the Russia-Ukraine war and for peace in West Asia? And why not, closer home, in strife-torn areas of Myanmar? Be it Myanmar or India’s own disturbed State of Manipur, a common problem is the lack of opportunities for employment and upward mobility for the youth. Hence, the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) Corridor, languishing on paper for nearly two decades, can bring prosperity to India’s north-eastern States, besides adding strength to India’s Act East policy. The more immediate problems All these trust-building ideas are what can be called high-hanging fruits. A lot of time, hard work and careful nurturing is needed before they can be harvested. There are, however, five low-hanging fruits ready for picking. First, direct flights, suspended after the outbreak of COVID-19, must be restarted. Second, the Indian government should begin issuing visas to Chinese businesspeople, engineers, technicians, and also to scholars and tourists eager to visit India. Last year, China issued visas to over 2,00,000 Indians; in contrast, India issued less than 10,000 visas to Chinese nationals. Three, New Delhi and Beijing should reverse their decisions that led to the exit of Chinese journalists from India and Indian journalists from China. Fourth, the Indian government had banned dozens of Chinese apps, including WeChat, in the wake of the Galwan Valley clash. The ban should be lifted. Fifth, the two countries should quickly make big moves on trade and investment. China can easily reduce the huge deficit in the bilateral trade by importing more from India. As rightly suggested by India’s Chief Economic Adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran, another way to manage this trade imbalance is by getting more foreign direct investment from China. Today, almost every big Indian business house is hungry for joint ventures, technology tie-ups and third-country export collaborations with Chinese companies. Let 2025 be a breakthrough year for India-China cooperation. A telling demonstration of this could be an official visit by Mr. Xi to India or Mr. Modi’s visit to China early next year. Sudheendra Kulkarni served as a close aide to the late Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, in the Prime Minister’s Office Published - December 25, 2024 12:16 am IST Copy link Email Facebook Twitter Telegram LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit India-China / diplomacy / Prime Minister Narendra Modi / unrest, conflicts and war / armed Forces / Pakistan / terrorism (crime) / Jammu and Kashmir / United Nations / Japan / Australia / Tibet / Taiwan / media / history / democracy / poverty / climate change / culture (general) / USA / imports / taxes and duties / economy (general) / green technologies / Electric vehicles / technology (general) / Russia-Ukraine Crisis / Myanmar / Manipur / Bangladesh / employment / air transport / Coronavirus / tourism / trade policy / investments