B.RAMAN
Prime Minister Li Kequiang of China, who took
over in March last, is to visit India,
Pakistan, Switzerland and Germany during his first round of overseas visits
after taking over as the Prime Minister.
2. His clubbing together his visits to India and
Pakistan on his way to Europe indicates the equal importance which the
newly-elected Chinese leadership attaches to China’s relations with India and
Pakistan.
3. The visit to India from May 19 to 21 threatened to
come under a cloud following the intrusion by a platoon of PLA troops into
Indian territory in the Daulat Beg Oldie
area of Eastern Ladakh on April 15 and their camping in tents there for nearly
three weeks.
4.The resulting stand-off between Chinese and
Indian troops of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) created trans-Line of
Actual Control tensions and led to demands in India for the postponement of the
visit of our Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid to Beijing to make preparations
for Li’s visit. The stand-off also revived the distrust of China in Indian
strategic circles.
5. The two countries managed to avert an
embarrassing postponement of the visits by agreeing on the restoration of the
status quo ante. The Chinese troops then vacated the Indian territory into
which they had intruded.
6. Two questions remain unclear. Firstly, why did
the Chinese troops intrude into this area even at the risk of their intrusion
casting a shadow on the first visit of their new Prime Minister to India?
Secondly, was there an Indian quid pro quo for the Chinese withdrawal? Sections
of the Indian media had reported that India had
agreed to remove some temporary infrastructure like bunkers for
sheltering patrolling Indian troops from its territory. If media accounts of
the quid pro quo are correct, it could ultimately turn out to be to the
detriment of our sovereignty claims in that area.
7.While the Ministry of Defence of the Government
of India has been a little more forthcoming on the Indian right to build
defensive and logistics infrastructure in our territory, the Ministry of
External Affairs has been evasive.
8.Ever since Xi Jinping took over as the General
Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in November last year, he has
been talking of the need for a border settlement “ as early as possible.” The
previous leaderships used to talk of the need for time and patience in reaching
a border accord and for not allowing this to come in the way of the development
of the bilateral relations in the economic and other fields. India had been
going along with this formulation of the past leaderships.
9. From the various remarks of Xi on Sino-Indian relations since he took over,
it would seem that he wants a time-frame for finding a border accord without
allowing the pressure for a time-frame coming in the way of strengthening
relations in other fields. The recent intrusion, in this regard, could be
interpreted as an attempt by the new leadership to press the need for a
solution “ as early as possible” without letting the negotiations drag on
endlessly.
10. It would be in India’s interest too to work for
a border accord “as early as possible.” At the same time, India should not
accept the Chinese formulation that the absence of a border accord should not
come in the way of the economic and other relations. This formulation has
immensely benefitted China.
11.Much of the delay till now has been due to
Beijing dragging its feet on exchanging maps of
the line of actual control, which has to be the first step. During the
forthcoming visit of the Chinese Prime Minister, we should make it clear that
we too want a border accord “ as early as possible”, but this would depend upon
the Chinese taking the first step of exchanging maps of the LAC which have to
be the basis of further negotiations.
12. We should also make it clear that relations in
the economic and other fields cannot improve without satisfactory progress in
the border talks. (15-5-13)
( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd),
Cabinet Secretariat, Govt of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director,
Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre for
China Studies. Twitter: @SORBONNE75 )
