People's Democracy

EDITORIAL

President Hu Jintao’s Successful Visit

THE successful visit of the president of the People’s Republic of China and the general secretary of the Communist Party of China, Comrade Hu Jintao resulted in a joint declaration between India and China. In addition, thirteen agreements were signed during the visit. Apart from these, the talks, according to official reports also centred on a variety of crucial issues. While asserting that an early accord on the border is a strategic objective, both the countries agreed to promote cooperation in nuclear energy, consistent with their international commitments. Readers will recall that once earlier when India was in critical need of nuclear fuel for its Tarapur plant, China had provided the required fuel. 

The declaration reflected the current spirit of the leadership of both the countries by stating that “there exists bright prospect for their (India and China) common development, that they are not rivals or competitors but are partners for mutual benefit.” The declaration targets to increase bilateral trade to $40 billion by 2010 seeking to upgrade India-China relations to a qualitatively new level and to further substantiate and reinforce their strategic and cooperative partnership. 

The declaration commits both the countries to pursue “a ten-pronged strategy”. These include (a) Comprehensive development of bilateral relations; additional diplomatic consulates will be opened in Kolkata and Guangzhou (Canton); regular summit-level meetings and increasing the number of exchanges of delegations at all levels have been planned. (b) Strengthening institutional linkages and dialogue mechanism between governments and ministries and departments. (c) Consolidating commercial and economic exchanges. A joint task force, set up to study the feasibility and benefits of India-China regional trading arrangement, shall complete its work by October 2007. (d) Expanding all-round mutually beneficial cooperation. This virtually includes all areas from trade, industry, finance to oil and natural gas, information and communication technologies, agriculture etc. An important advance is on the cooperation regarding trans-border rivers such as Brahmaputra and Sutlej. (e) Instilling mutual trust and confidence through defence cooperation. (f) Seeking early settlement of outstanding issues. The central element of this is the border question. Pending the resolution, the declaration states, “both sides shall maintain peace and tranquility in the border area in accordance with the agreements of 1993, 1996 and 2005”. (g) Promoting trans-border connectivity and cooperation. Apart from providing greater facilities to Indian pilgrims to Kailash Mansarovar, both sides agreed to explore the possibility of opening an additional route. Additional routes for border trade will also be explored while consolidating the Nathula Pass trade that has already begun. (h) Boosting cooperation in science and technology. Both sides agreed to launch joint projects in areas like earthquake engineering; climate changes and weather forecasting; nanotechnology and biotechnology to focus on bio-nano. (i) Revitalising cultural ties and nurturing people-to-people exchanges. Aiming to rediscover the ancient historical linkages and to place them in the current context, an early completion of the Xuanzang (Hsuen Tsang) memorial at Nalanda and the construction of an Indian style Buddhist shrine in Luoyang are envisaged. China has declared its willingness to cooperate in the re-development of Nalanda as a major centre of learning with the establishment of an international university. Both the countries have declared their intention for strengthening cooperation linkages between Indian states and Chinese provinces. (j) Expanding cooperation on regional and international stage. By declaring that at the current level of India-China relations, the strategic partnership between the two countries goes beyond the realm of bilateral relations to impact on the future of the region as well as the world, the declaration states “as two major countries in the emerging multipolar global order, the simultaneous development of India and China will have a positive influence on the future international system”. 

Pledging to hold regular exchange of views and to undertake proactive consultations in order to coordinate their positions on major global and regional issues, the declaration positively assesses the trilateral mechanism among India, China and Russia and has declared to strengthen this process. Joint fight against terrorism, separatism and extremism and the linkages between terrorism and organised crime and illicit and drug trafficking will be strengthened. On crucial issues such as democratisation of the United Nations and India’s claim to be on the Security Council, the declaration states “China attaches great importance to the status of India in international affairs. It understands and supports India’s aspirations to play a greater role in the United Nations.” Vital cooperation on energy security; strengthening cooperation in the WTO; exploring a new architecture for closer regional cooperation in Asia while strengthening the cooperation on issues of common interests under the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation are underlined. China extended invitations to president Kalam and prime minister Manmohan Singh. The declaration concludes by stating “The two sides believe that the highly successful visit of president Hu Jintao to India marks the high point of the India-China Friendship Year in 2006, promotes mutual understanding and trust, helps in substantiating the Strategic and Cooperative Partnership between the two countries and leads to a qualitative and quantum improvement in bilateral relations. They also agree that this Joint Statement provides a valuable blueprint for enduring development and diversification of the relations between India and China and sustained enrichment of their strategic partnership.”

As we have been analysing in these columns on many occasions, the improvement of relations between India and China contributes not only for peace and security in the region but to our economic prosperity by releasing huge amounts of resources that are today engaged in defence preparedness pending the resolution of the border issue. In economic sphere, greater cooperation between the two countries, India with its relative advantage in information technology and software and China with its relative advantage in manufacturing and hardware, will produce a new synergy that will vastly benefit over one third of humanity living in these two countries today. The strategic cooperation between India-China and Russia and the strengthening of regional groupings like the Shanghai Cooperation will greatly contribute towards realising a multipolar world order as opposed to US imperialism’s efforts to impose a unipolar world order under its tutelage. 

We can only hope that this process of improving and consolidating India-China relations will proceed forward with the forthcoming return visit of the Indian head of State/head of government next year.