Also Read
Chinese Ambassador to India, Luo Zhaohui, has proposed that India, China and Pakistan should hold a trilateral summit. Luo has also said that the 5Cs — communication, cooperation, contacts, coordination and control — can help promote China-India relations. Although it remains to be seen whether India and Pakistan agree to such a summit to strengthen relations, the idea of deeper regional cooperation is worth exploring. China of the 21st century is different from what it was in the 20th century. It is taking firm and ambitious strides to become a world power, although not always to the liking of its neighbours. India is unhappy with China over the latter’s territorial claims and its economic overtures in Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. The Doklam standoff was the most recent of the skirmishes between the two countries that saw China trying to gain military and strategic advantage with regard to Chicken’s Neck, which India, inspite of all its bravado, could not stand up and face. The chief question before India under the circumstances is whether the Chinese can be trusted. In the past, India has had bitter experiences with the Northern neighbour and a huge trust deficit has developed over past half century. The goodwill that probably existed between colonized India and the old China vanished with the communist revolution of Mao Zedong. The Chinese today are out on a global conquest, not only with military might or weapons, but with a huge line-up of goods and products that has put them at the top of the trade food chain globally. It is also developing a formidable military arsenal that has worried everyone. The fact, though, is that history is merely repeating itself. For instance, there was a time when the craftsmen of India were so proficient that their products were considered far superior to what was produced in the West at that time. Traders took these products to the West and reproduced them with their own devices and succeeded in making them on an industrial scale expending resources they plundered globally. Today China is doing the same. Only, it is plundering intellectual wealth from the West and is using it to meet its own ends. In the new world order, China is bound to hold pride of place. Against this backdrop, it would be unwise of India to let go of an opportunity to foster regional cooperation, but without compromising its own territorial and economic interests. Even as China is developing its military might, it would definitely not be interested in using it as the costs of war are huge. If China can mediate peace between India and Pakistan, it would undoubtedly be a huge positive for the entire region, which is spending a lot of its energies and resources merely on fighting proxy wars. If China, even for a short period and for its own interests, succeeds in cooling tempers between India and Pakistan, then it might prove beneficial for all sides. India has to always remember that there is no love lost with China. Whatever the Chinese may do now will only be for the time being as, for them, India is a huge trade partner with a massive payment deficit. They know very well that they can cook the Indian goose anytime they wish. Keeping this in mind, India has to tread with caution and reframe its regional foreign policy with short term gains and long term results in mind.
