The conflict over rare earths is not only a consequence of the monopoly amassed by China but is also reflective of the current flux in global power hierarchies.
With a friendly dispensation in Dhaka, it is an opportune moment for India to deliver on its promise to exchange the enclaves and surrender adverse possessions.
Would China’s strategic error in inviting Japanese hostility place more blocks to its rise as an unchallenged regional power or would it be able to override the Japanese threat in ample measure by altering its strategic game and finding a meeting ground with the United States?
China has all along been testing the limits of India’s tolerance and restraint and has once again given the Indian foreign ministry much home work for the next few months.
Russia is one country that India cannot afford to sideline, as it is the only trusted partner with whom India has mutual compatibility and a close political, military and economic partnership for decades.
Kan’s statement about sending the SDF to the Korean peninsula to rescue Japanese citizens and people of Japanese origin in the event of an emergency has raised the spectre of a possible revival of Japanese militarism.
Japan’s adoption of a new defence Guidelines to secure its southern “outlaying islands” closer to China suggests major shift in Japan’s Cold War security policy.
With Russia hosting three major world sporting events in the next eight years, it is hoped that there would be a massive infusion of capital to boost the country’s infrastructure and upgrade the transport and tourism sectors.
Primer Wen’s visit should be devoted to enhance mutual trust and confidence but this should not be done by brushing longstanding problems under the carpet.
A widening gap between rhetoric and reality will only lead to cynicism, and the gap can be narrowed only by establishing habits of cooperation that can withstand the vicissitudes of change, whether it be of governments or priorities.
An initiative focusing on collaboration and innovation (COIN) in energy, health, infrastructure, and knowledge-intensive industries has potential to overcome emerging fissures and enhance India-China economic relations.
