Time will see better China-India relations
- Source: Global Times
- [08:48 November 02 2009]
- Comments
Editor's Note:
As the two most populous countries on the earth, China and India have great responsibilities as well as opportunities. However, recent political turmoil has cast uncertainty over bilateral relations.
Dr Swaran Singh (Singh), professor of diplomacy and disarmament at Jawaharlal Nehru University, is a leading scholar on Sino-Indian relations. The following is an interview by Global Times (GT) reporter Wu Mian with Singh.
GT: Territorial disputes have always been a sensitive issue in Sino-Indian relations. What's your understanding of the recent friction on the border? Do you think it is a good time for both governments to take further steps to solve the border conflicts or should they wait still?
Singh: To begin with, it's not a border dispute.
It is a dispute about territorial sovereignty involving a clash of claims on about 125,000 square kilometers. That is a territory larger than about half of the member states of the UN.
Secondly, both China and India are civilizations that were not territorial until their interface with European imperial powers that subjugated both of them, thus making them equally obsessed with territorial integrity as the soul of their sovereignty.
If you add cold war politics, differences in their political cultures and systems and the Sino-India war in 1962, then we understand that no quick solution is likely to come in the case of China-India territorial disputes.
However, both sides have successfully "tranquilized" their dispute and this has ensured their peace.
Both sides should strengthen dialogue and not allow those seasonal and small irritants to derail their strategic cooperative partnership.
GT: How do you interpret Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's reaction to the Dalai Lama's visit to disputed border region?
Singh: India does not allow either the Dalai Lama or other Tibetans in India to use Indian territory to conduct any political activities.
India's track record in disallowing political protests has been praised by Chinese authorities several times and remains an article of faith in China- India friendship.
So, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh does not have any specific views about this matter and generally avoids making any direct comment either way.
India also seeks to deal with these matters through official channels, which has also been repeatedly underlined by Indian officials and political leadership.
It is also important to appreciate that for Indian elite and political leadership, the Dalai Lama remains first a spiritual and religious leader.
India, being a strongly spiritual civilization and religious society, has very limited leverage to put any restraint on the Dalai Lama.
Secondly, India is the home of Buddhism and much of the Himalayan belt has a Buddhist population.
The Dalai Lama's visit to the disputed region also highlights the sentiments of followers of Buddhism in this region who wish to and have right to benefit from the Dalai Lama's preaching.
GT: Let's talk about economic competition between the two countries. The White House has now declared a "growing strategic partnership" with India. Do you think forming a closer relationship with the US will intensify India's relationship with China?
Singh: I agree.
Economic relationships have become increasingly important determinants of inter-state ties.
China is an excellent example of this strategy where even adversaries can use economic relationships to create atmospherics to improve their ties and resolve their conflicts.
