Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to China acted as a stepping stone towards building better relations between both the countries. It is imperative for the growth of the region that both these countries join hands together and work collectively,
writes Aroob Aziz
India has claimed that it is not at all part of any effort to contain China, and that its engagement with Beijing is an imperative necessity. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made his point clear to the Chinese leadership when was asked to comment on a controversial four-nation security dialogue among the United States, Japan, Australia and India.
Dr Singh, who recently made his maiden visit to China as Prime Minister was quoted by Press Trust of India as saying there is no misunderstanding between India and China on the proposed dialogue among the four nations which, he added, "never got going".
China has looked at the quadrilateral talks with suspicion and had even asked the countries to explain the reason for this arrangement which, it felt, propagated cold-war mentality.
India realizes that China is their largest neighbor and in many ways, engagement with China is an imperative necessity for India. Hence the Prime Minister decided to visit China himself, so as to further strengthen the relations and reduce tensions between both the countries.
Prime Minister Singh made plans to hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao and call on President Hu Jintao during his three-day visit. They discussed all issues with frankness and friendship as engagement with China was a priority for India.
India and China also planned on signing five agreements, including a pact between the two state-run railways, during Mr. Singh’s visit to China. The accords also covered sectors such as housing, geo-sciences, land resource management and traditional medicine. The memorandum of understanding covering the rail sector will promote cooperation between the Chinese and the Indian railways.
India has so far not commented on a Chinese train service to the Tibetan capital of Lhasa launched last year but is apprehensive over Beijing’s plans to extend it to Nepal.
The pact on land management would aim to boost bilateral cooperation "based on the principles of equality, mutual benefit and reciprocity" on "land administration, resettlement and rehabilitation." Also the pact on traditional medicine would provide a legal framework to jointly produce and market Indian and Chinese traditional medicines. However observers warned the accord could face flak as conservation groups say Indian tigers are randomly slaughtered for body parts that are smuggled to the flourishing Chinese medicine market.
One shouldn’t expect that there would be any dramatic turnaround on issues which have long been pending. The visit was a stepping stone for building better relations amongst the two countries and the issues will take time to solve.
India claims China occupies 38,000 square kilometers of its territory, while China claims the whole of the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which is 90,000 square kilometers belongs to them.
India also said that the ongoing military cooperation between Australia, Japan, India and the United States was not directed against China.
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