India needs well calibrated foreign policy to enhance ties with China

http://epaper.globaltimes.cn/2014-06-12/54604.htm

Indian Prime minister, Narendra Modi a pariah in the Western world for being  complicit in the 2002 Gujarat riots, ‘a Hindi bigot’ and even ‘fascist’ by various national parties in India who according to them would break the country into shreds, and was pronounced a ‘threat to the existence’ of Muslims in India and elsewhere, belied all these claims and steered the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) headed by Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) to a landslide victory with BJP single handedly securing absolute majority by winning 282 seats in the Lower House of the Indian Parliament, first time since 1984 any party has won a majority. The Indian National Congress (INC) that headed the government for two consecutive terms performed disastrously by bagging only 44 seats primarily for its ‘policy paralysis’ and corruption scandals running into billions of dollars in a country as poor as India. Therefore, Modi’s resurgence on the Indian political horizon demonstrates yearning of the billion strong nation, especially the middle class and young population for a strong and decisive leader; the INC drubbing represents this section of population’s frustration with the party infested by corruption, nepotism and perpetual dynastic rule since the days of Nehru. This also represents a desire to emulate China’s economic success story, and an Indian dream of seeing the country become rich and powerful thus seeking its rightful place in the comity of nations.

Seeing the mood of the Indian electorate, Nancy Powel, the then US ambassador to India, travelled all the way to Gujarat; praised Modi’s model of ‘good governance’ and ‘excellent investment climate’ in Gujarat and said that he was welcome in the United States. On being elected to power, the designate Prime Minister, was congratulated by the US President Barack Obama and invited him to visit Washington at a mutually agreeable time, the meeting has been confirmed to late September, implying that the US President would be meeting Indian Prime Minister for the two consecutive years. Obama may have defense deals, civil nuclear cooperation and US investment in Indian retail sector ready for discussion with Modi, but can the Indian Prime Minister ignore its immediate neighbor, China?

Modi inviting SAARC leaders to his swearing in ceremony on May 25, a regional foreign policy master stroke is the testimony to what Modi’s foreign policy is likely to be. It appears that Modi is straightening and strengthening India’s relations with the South Asian countries, no wonder he has opted Bhutan for his first foreign visit. While consolidating its ties in the region, India, meanwhile, need to strive for strategic partnerships with major powers like the US, Russia and China, particularly China should remain India’s top foreign policy priority for the following reasons.

Firstly, if Modi’s top 10 priorities for India, pronounced soon after taking the charge is any pointer, then definitely China is the country we need to focus on. India could universalize mobile phone connectivity in India with such an affordable rates is not because of Nokia and Ericson, or any other western telecom giant, but because of the tough competition these companies received from Chinese telecom giants Huawei and ZTE. Similarly, if India would like to build state of the art high speed railways and expressways, it could be built in tandem with China with latter’s expertise, capital and competitive prices, not with the exorbitantly high western technology attached with strings. Prime Minister Modi perhaps understands it better than any other political leaders in India, for he has been to China and Taiwan many times; his Gujarat model is nothing but a Shenzhen model. In 2011 while addressing a crowd of 200 Chinese investors in Beijing, he told them that Gujarat offered ‘governance, transparency and stability. Can he repeat these three words to them for India as well? I think he will, for if Gujarat has attracted much of the 900 million dollars of Chinese investment in India, India could attract billions more from China in infrastructural development and manufacturing sector. Modi is aware of China’s new global reach, that’s why he told Premier Li Keqiang that India has to learn from China’s experience.

Secondly, greater economic and political engagement between India and China demands that constructive and cooperative partnership transcends bilateral and regional configurations, as the relationship is that of enormous global implications. As the 21^st century is tipped to be an Asian Century, and India and China twin engines of Asian and world economic growth, it is imperative for both to realize the dream of a resurgent Asia together. China has been vigorously following this dream for the last 30 years, it is time for India to set its house in order as Modi rightly says, and be a strong and equal partner in the realization of this dream. Initiatives such as BCIM, Silk Route, Sea Silk Route that link the countries and regions by a network of roads, railways and markets are welcome steps. Active participation from India will render the ‘string of pearls’ and ‘China’s containment of India’ etc theories meaningless, and prepare India for a bigger role not only in the regional economic development, but also in the security architecture of the region. It is given that with the rise of both India and China there would be overlapping interests whether in the Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean or any other continent, therefore, inclusive or common security needs to be actively explored. This is significant as India and China has found convergence of interests in many spheres, be it the climate change, democratization of international financial institutions or other multilateral forums.

Thirdly, India has many outstanding issues with China, the unresolved boundary issue; the biggest of all has been the root cause of much of the trust deficit. Not necessary everyone in India is aware of the fact that we lost a couple of opportunities to resolve the issue, as we did not see logic in the Chinese proposals of a package deal in the late 1950s and 1970s. 39 rounds of talks with China since 1981 have yielded not much; the more we talk the more complexity the issue has gathered. The issue that needed a political solution, we contrarily adopted a piecemeal approach by devising as many as 8 mechanisms including the latest Border Defense Cooperation Agreement. It is not to say that these mechanisms have not improved the security environment, the environment has improved, not firing a single shot in the thousands of kilometers long border is a testimony to this; however, these have fallen short of finding a credible mutually agreeable resolution to the border issue.

As China’s ‘all weather friendship’ with Pakistan has created apprehensions and anxieties in India for a long time, India’s rapprochement with Japan, Vietnam, South Korea, and the US has created similar anxieties in security circles in China, and has been interpreted as ‘containment’ of China. As China get increasingly embroiled in East China Sea with Japan and Vietnam and Philippines in South China Sea, these concerns have been reignited, and the comparisons are being drawn between nationalist Abe and Modi, there are also people talking about ‘close bonding’ between Modi and Abe. Under such circumstances, India will need to have an extremely well calibrated foreign policy with ‘strategic autonomy’ at its core with regional as well as major powers including China. India need not necessarily take sides but should not shy away from attracting Japanese investment in a big way that has declined rapidly in China, last year alone registering almost 33% fall. Modi is going to be hands on prime minister, caution and incrementalism of the erstwhile government in the matters of domestic and foreign policy may disappear for better.

Finally, there has been an uninterrupted civilizational dialogue between India and China since time immemorial. Xuan Zang, who Modi told the Chinese Premier had visited his native place, was part of this dialogue along with many other scholar monks from China and India including Kumārajīva, Paramārtha, Amoghavajra Faxian and Yi Jing. In a span of 734 years between 67 AD and 800 AD, 2412 sutras that ran into 7352 fascicles were translated from Sanskrit by 185 prominent translators. It was through the efforts of these scholar monks that the repository of East Asian Buddhist literature could be created. In modern times, there was a very close proximity between the Indian nationalist leaders with the Chinese nationalists namely Sun Yatsen and Zhang Taiyan; the Ghadr Party that had basis in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Hankou, Beijing etc. places and had participated in Chinese revolution in 1920s was supported both by the Communists and the Nationalists.  If the figures are to be believed, prior to the industrial revolution, India and China jointly accounted for 50% of the world's GDP. As the economic and political balance shifts to Asia, Asia is poised to restore that position within the next few decades, and India and China accounting for most of the GDP. It is in this context that the relationship is going to be that of a global significance, as it would heavily impinge on the global political and economic architecture. Needless to say, it becomes extremely important for both the countries to nurture this relationship well, and continue the civilizational dialogue that once strengthened cultural as well as economic ties between both the countries.