The Chinese prime minister’s visit was in no way intended to offer solution to the vexed issue of border incursion. Li came to pursue China’s national interest and not to enrich India-China bilateral ties.
The recent visit by the external affairs minister can be viewed as continuation of new diplomatic push to strengthen bilateral cooperation with Iran despite the difficulties of economic sanctions imposed by the US and EU. However, the real test for both the countries is to maintain and sustain the current momentum.
Changing the political relationship between two rising powers requires that both countries use the opportunity provided by their shared interest in global governance reform to develop close cooperation.
Timely as it was, the Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s five-day China visit may be considered a success on all fronts. Leading the ‘strongest Australian delegation ever’ to China, Gillard pledged to give the relationship a ‘concrete shape’, which in Chinese Premier Li Kequing’s words, is already ‘comprehensive, constructive and cooperative’. This issue brief analyses Julia Gillard’s China visit in the context of rising Australia-China bonhomie.
The Himalayan river system, which is made up of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers, has a combined drainage area that covers the countries of China, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. The basin of the Indus river, which originates in the Tibetan plateau, is the lifeline of regions in China, Pakistan, India and Afghanistan.
Incursions and incidents of escalation are not new to India-China relations. Importantly they have been successfully diffused by a combination of adroit diplomacy, ‘show of force’ and political statesmanship.
A series of anti-Muslim campaigns particularly after the end of the Eelam War is giving an impression that the Sri Lankan Muslims are becoming the next scapegoats of majoritarianism.
By abstaining from voting on the global arms trade treaty, India has exposed the treaty’s loopholes in not addressing concerns about illegal transfer of arms to terrorist organisations, insurgents groups and other non-state actors.
Now that NAM is defunct and very little wealth is left in the Commonwealth, and given that the G-20 has a set parameter and doesn’t encompass the aggregate of the hopes and aspirations of the developing world, India should use the BRICS forum to project its global profile.
