Sino-Indian ties will gather momentum, says President

By C. Raja Mohan

KUNMING, JUNE 2. Sino- Indian relations have entered a positive phase and cooperation between the two countries will now gather momentum, the President Mr. K.R. Narayanan, affirmed here today.

The President, now on the last lap of his week-long State visit to China, was reflecting on the results of his talks with the Chinese leadership over the last few days.

In an interaction here with the scholars from the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences, Mr. Narayanan said he had the ``sense that Sino-Indian relations have reached criticality''. ``From now on,'' he added, ``cooperation between the two countries will acquire both speed and intensity''.

The President was responding to proposals under the so-called Kunming initiative for regional economic integration between Eastern India, South Western China, Bangladesh and Myanmar.

The Institute for South Asia Studies here in the capital of Yunnan province has been promoting ideas for road, rail and air links across the region to facilitate trade and tourism among the four countries.

The case for regional cooperation has got broad support from the academic communities of India, Bangladesh and Myanmar at a conference last year at Kunming. The Governments of the four countries are considering the implementation of various proposals.

Welcoming the Kunming initiative, Mr. Narayanan said he was ``happy to be present at the beginning'' of this important process. The success of the process, he said, would ``depend crucially'' on the movement in Sino-Indian relations. Recalling that the late Prime Ministers of the two countries, Jawaharlal Nehru and Zhou Enlai, had discussed transport links between India and China, Mr. Narayanan said he was pleased those ideas were now being revived. He believed that ``all material conditions are now present'' for the exploration of innovative ideas in bilateral ties.

Congratulating the Yunnan scholars for thinking up the Kunming initiative, Mr. Narayanan said there was a ``real opportunity now to inject economic and technical content to our age-old relations''.

The Yunnan province, witnessing rapid economic growth, wants to emerge as a bridge between the subcontinent and South East Asia. Beijing is said to be actively supporting the initiative by the provincial authorities.

Mr. Narayanan is also meeting tonight the Governor of Yunnan, Mr. Li Jiting.

Among the merits of the initiative, Mr. Narayanan said, are the focus on some of the backward regions in India and China, and the attempt to draw in Bangladesh and Myanmar, both looking for a quicker pace of economic growth.

According to Mr. Narayanan, the initiative ``will have long-term consequences for Sino-Indian cooperation as well as immediate impact on peace, stability and progress'' in the region. But it is unlikely to go very far, unless there is greater commercial interest within the Indian business community and a bolder political vision in New Delhi to pursue what appears to be a promising opportunity to recast India's neighbourhood to the East.

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