Li Keqiang’s India visit will keep the momentum of bilateral relations

The peaceful resolution of the ‘tent confrontation’ points to the maturing of India China relations, and that both sides have the will and confidence to dissolve the crisis bilaterally and prevent it from acquiring dangerous proportions. It is also a pointer to the fact that India-China relations remains “fragile” and the hyper sensitive nature of the border issue remains at the core of trust deficit and mutual suspicion, if not handled properly could rekindle the animosities in no time. It almost jeopardized the visits of Indian External Affair Minister Salman Khurshid to China and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s India visit.

It is also indicative of the fact that the existing mechanisms have been effective in maintaining the peace and tranquility along the border in the last two decades or so, however, have also demonstrated that these fall short of finding a solution to the border issue. These incidents would continue to happen until and unless the border or LAC remains undefined and undemarcated on the ground. Therefore, it becomes pertinent for both India and China to show political will and resolve, and reach an agreeable resolution of the border as soon as possible so that a way is paved for a firmer hand shake and trust between the two.

The faceoff also demonstrates that both nations does not want the border to be an irritant in developing bilateral relations in other areas, especially trade and investment, culture and people to people relations. Here again a lot has to be done by both the governments. For example China need to open its markets for Indian pharmaceutical and IT products and allay some of the Indian concerns related to trade deficit; India on the other hand needs to open its market for greater Chinese investment in infrastructure, power and telecom etc sectors. As far as people to people exchanges are concerned, both India and China need to enhance the number of scholarships substantially. Unfortunately there are only 25 exchange scholarships for 2.4 billion people presently. Furthermore, India needs to open its educational institutes for Chinese students and strengthen its Chinese learning and China studies in India. We must ask ourselves, why have thousands of Indian students found their ways to China? And after all how many Chinese students have found their ways to the Indian universities. Why it is so that only 100,000 Chinese could visit India comparing to 600, 000 Indians to China? We need to initiate a flexible visa regime and facilitate larger academic exchanges at various levels. 

In this regard, the visit of Li Keqiang is extremely important. It is important as the Chinese leadership has chosen India to be the first country of his visit after resuming office, and that also prior to the return visit of Indian prime minister that is due since Wn Jiabao’s 2010 India visit. India has reciprocated to these positive signals emanating from Beijing positively. The fact that Indian Foreign Minister, Salman Khurshid putting Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s India visit above the border standoff, and also that India dispatched a defense delegation to China to work out the details of forthcoming hand-in-hand military exercises, shows that India is serious in maintaining good neighborly relations with China. In order to build the real strategic partnership, both the countries need to keep the momentum of the visits at highest level, diversify their relations in other fields substantially, and try to find a reasonable solution to the border issue that is acceptable to both the countries at the earliest.