When
I came in here this morning, I thought I must have arrived at a wrong place,
the world of culture, arts, liberal thoughts, as the publications in the
next room testify, and my sense of bewilderment has been reinforced by Prof.
Tan Chung’s observations about a holistic perspective, art and culture,
messages of love from Guanyin and Krishna and so on. The quotedian world of
diplomacy seems far remote from these higher ideas and greater aspirations.
Nevertheless, I have to persist and try to say a few words, let me say,
couple of preliminaries. I see my colleagues from the East Asian Division*,
like me they might be somewhat more inhibited in what they might say in a
seminar of this nature. But I have my very distinguished friends and
colleagues who were senior to me from the Foreign Service who are extremely
knowledgeable about Chins and who might be in fuller flow than those of us
who are still sewing in the Ministry.
I
am also intimidated by what I am told about the fact that our observations
are to be recorded. Well, I hope that this won’t be held against me at any
rate about others and furthermore I doubt very much if I can say anything of
real substance or anything worth recording. But anyway let me take up some
of the points that perhaps can be offered at this stage. We have been
engaged for quite some time in repairing and restoring and developing
relations with China after a period of strain and tension. I need not go
into what was done at the time of Mrs. Gandhi, the fact is that we did
develop an approach that did not give primacy to the areas of discord
without wishing to turn away or without pretending that they did not exist,
and we chose instead to seek for areas of mutual benefit and where we could
infact develop our relations. Obviously, this has been productive but it
requires a will, a settled purpose on the part of the leadership in both
countries.
Prof.
Tan Chung did refer to this and quite rightly he made a perfectly valid
observation. We have been urging others, our neighbours, to adopt a similar
approach in handling the problem, not to permit disputes to dominate, but to
seek areas of mutual benefit. The fact that we have not got very far on all
fronts underlines the relevance and the importance of this long standing
approach that we have adopted on bilateralities with China. Now, there was a
steady process of exchange, on border and other issues which was steady but
also very slow, and through the first part of the last decade. I think it
important to recall that in the middle of the last decade, there was a
period of renewed difficulty, when it appeared from both sides that
activities were taking place on the border, particularly certain sections of
the border that brought India trouble, when there was a build up from both
sides and an introduction of alarm, (perhaps, “alarm” is not too strong
a word), certainly a great deal of watchfulness and a deterioration in our
relationship. Owing to this situation what did happen thereafter was a very
notable and a bold step taken by the Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi who,
in 1988, took the step of going to
China notwithstanding the fact that there had been a military build up along
the border. His visit to China in 1998 to which many of those who are
present here in this room contributed in signal measures, brought about a
new complexion in relations, which did mean that diplomatically, a negative
condition was converted into a positive. It was a kind of rebound from the
situation of difficulty, and a momentum was created towards a positive
process of discussion on border dispute and other questions. And this
process has been in effect there since then. A number of meetings of the
joint working group which was strengthened and revitalized and given another
name on that occasion and the discussions have been purposeful, being
accompanied by a number of confidence building measures on the border. I
have had, as many others in this room, the opportunity for being engaged in
these joint working group meetings, and we have, in fact, been able to make
slow but steady progress. And with the confidence building measures that
have been instituted, there is a measurably improved atmosphere along the
border.
There
has been some thinning out of military forces as we are informed. This is
not a negotiated thinning out, but there has been some voluntary action
which bears witness to a more relaxed situation on the border culminating in
a climax during Mr. Narsimha Rao’s visit to Beijing in 1993 when a border
peace and tranquillity agreement was signed which gave a stamp on this
process and gave momentum for further developments. Since then, the last
meeting of the joint working group has resulted in a small withdrawal from
both sides of various posts which were within close range and thereby
constituted a potential for confidence building. And this has underlined the
point that efforts are made on both sides to render the border tranquil, to
remove causes of strife and to reduce physical confrontation along the
border.
Another
point I would like to say is that from what we can see at least when we talk
to the standing committee of the Indian Parliament or when the matter is
raised in Parliamentary committes or discussions at the Parliamentary level
in various ways, there is a consensus that it would be useful and helpful to
the country to make progress in sorting out the border problem with China.
This is the broad sense of it. I would say that there is a lot of
watchfulness, a lot of careful approach to this matter which is recognized
as a matter of great complexity and one that has to be tackled with due care
and preparation. The broad trend of opinion is, at least in what I am able
to see along the lines, what I have just indicated. With that there has been
a development in bilateral economic exchanges. Our trade is around $1.2
billion, is increasing rapidly. $1.2 billion is not a dramatic, but quite
substantial and measurable increase and is much more than what it was a few
years ago. There is a good rate of growth.
In
addition to trade, there are a few joint ventures. In this I must say the
Chinese have been more active than we have, in selling technology, in
finding partnerships in India, and actively engaged in India. But Indian
entrepreneurs and business people are also active now in China. In
pharmaceuticals recently, a joint venture was set up and there is a sense of
substantial potential in this field. We have been hearing many years ago
that India and China are essentially competitors in the world and the
complementarities are few. But I think that this is not the view that is
being sustained by the experience of the business community
on
both sides. They have been able to find openings in each other’s countries
and there is a sense that there will be further openings available. Border
trade has opened in a couple of places, though nothing very much has
happened, this benefits small isolated communities, which had all along been
trading along the border, and they are now able to revive trade which is
useful and encouraging. We are hopeful that this process can be expanded,
there are some proposals from each side for additional points of border
trade and let us see how soon we can get this going.
I
do see a couple of points on the border trade worth noting. I see that some
businessmen in Kathmandu are quite interested in exporting Indian products
to Tibet. So, instead of going directly across the Sino-Indian border, the
trade can be routed through Nepal. One recalls, I don’t know how good my
recollection is, that this was a traditional route, until some time at the
end of the 18th century, when the tolls demanded by the new Gorkha regime in
Kathmandu became excessive and then the British started looking for
alternatives through Sikkim and also through Bhutan which was not so
welcoming. But Sikkim then provided a reasonable access. So, it’s
interesting that we have come back to that situation, at least that
possibility is once gain a useful one to look at. And on the other front,
the development of communications between India and Myanmar, and the
development of the border trade and the fact that Myanmar does have
considerable access to Chinese goods of various kinds, means that another
possibility of fairly modest trade, at this stage, along the border, has
been created.
Once
again, there are historical precedents in this case, I believe, going back
to the Tang Dynasty. But I am not too clear about the details of that. Let
me refer to one or two more points before I conclude. Recently, for the
first time, India took part as a dialogue partner in the ASEAN
post-ministerial conference in Jakarta and we were also part of the ARF
dialogue, this Asian regional forum, which addresses security issues. It was
our first exposure to this forum, which is a broad one that includes China,
among many countries. There is a number of non-regional and regional
countries that are present in this ASEAN Regional Forum.
I
draw attention to this because it is one grouping in which India and China
find themselves favourably placed. Some of the concepts, some of the ideas
for stabilising the broader arenas, for promoting co-operative andeavour or
at least co-operative thinking, if not actions, have been unfolded at this
stage. An exploration of each other’s views, that is what such fora excel,
can bring our two countries closer.
I
don’t know whether this points to the larger vision that Prof. Tan Chung
alluded to, but it certainly is a broader basis for exchanges, between the
countries of the region, including India and China. And I personally believe
that there is a considerable potential for looking at each other bearing
this perspective. I think that I would like to stop here and also strongly
advise Prof. Tan Chung not to either record or print my remarks but that is
entirely his decision. I must also thank him and IGNCA for this opportunity.
I really come here more in a spirit of solidarity, both with the Indira
Gandhi National Centre for the Arts and with the distinguished
representatives here, in order to express Ministry of External Affair’s
abiding interest in the subject and my desire to be associated with it.
*
Mr.
Salman Haidar was the Foreign Secretary of Government India when he
delivered this talk. He was accompanied by officials of East Asian
Division of the Ministry of External Affairs.
