ADB shouldn’t interfere in border dispute

• Source: Global Times
• [00:43 June 23 2009]
• Comments

By Wang Yuan

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) made an unwise move last Monday in approving a $2.9 billion loan to India, $60 million of which will be used for development in the disputed borderland region of Chinese South Tibet, known as “Arunachal Pradesh” in India.

The region is located at China’s southwestern border and India’s northeastern border, where most of the Sino-India border disputes are centered.

In 1987, India abruptly announced that it was officially designating the region as “Arunachal Pradesh,” but the Chinese government never recognized India’s occupation of the region, nor the legitimacy of the province.

India plans to use ADB funding for watershed and sanitation projects in the disputed region. With its border not formally delineated, the ramping up of development projects in the region suggests that India hopes to present a fait accompli, which will disrupt the peaceful resolution of the dispute.

The ADB’s loan will only fuel these efforts. Its claim that it has no bias in Sino-Indian border disputes and is interested only in economic considerations seems disingenuous.

In recent years, Sino-Indian relations have progressed smoothly forward, as China is India’s second-largest trading partner and India China’s 10th-largest, and both sides are eager to expand trade and cooperation.

The Sino-Indian border issue remains one of the major obstacles to the two countries’ relationship. It is urgent to remove this obstacle.

China and India have held 20 rounds of negotiations on the border conflicts since 1981, and the next round will be held in New Delhi this August.

The ADB’s loan may be used by India in an unfair way as a bargaining chip in the territorial negotiations, and thus should be discouraged.

The ADB, which should have promoted economic and social development and stability in the region, just made a controversial matter even worse.

In addition, the ADB’s three largest stakeholders, in order, are the US, Japan and China. The ADB’s action, which has caused discontent in China, adds to the perception that the US and Japan are backing India’s hard-line stance and do little to further unity among the bank’s member states.

This article was complied by Wang Yuan based on an interview with Zhao Gancheng, director of the Center of South Asia Studies at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies