The Hindu : India, China look forward to buoyancy in ties

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 21, 2003

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India, China look forward to buoyancy in ties

By Amit Baruah

NEW DELHI JUNE 20. Atal Behari Vajpayee will be the fourth Prime Minister to visit China after Jawaharlal Nehru (October 1954), Rajiv Gandhi (December 1988) and P.V. Narasimha Rao (September 1993) when he arrives in Beijing for a six-day visit on June 22.

In 1979, Mr. Vajpayee as the External Affairs Minister travelled to China — a visit that marked the beginning of high-level exchanges between the two countries. His visit came after India and China exchanged ambassadors in 1976 — for a full 15 years the two countries were not represented by ambassadors.

Mr. Vajpayee's visit is crucial as it will be the first tour of China by an Indian Prime Minister after the nuclear tests of May 1998.

As India and China look forward in their relationship, it has not gone unnoticed in China that Mr. Vajpayee's visit comes at a time when a World Health Organisation advisory suggesting the postponement of "all but essential travel'' in view of the SARS threat through China has brought the situation under control.

The Prime Minister, who met the Chinese President, Hu Jintao, on May 31 in St. Petersburg, Russia, will have the opportunity for extensive discussions with the entire Chinese leadership, including the Premier, Wen Jiabao, and the Central Military Commission, Jiang Zemin.

Though there were suggestions from Chinese officials in New Delhi of some "forward movement'' on China accepting Sikkim as part of India, the latest indications are that this might well prove elusive.

In fact, sources here have been trying to comprehend the statements made by Chinese officials here at a time when there is no apparent reference made to the issue when External Affairs Ministry officials visited Beijing for discussions on the joint declaration that will be issued by the two countries.

Though the sources conceded that China could simply make an announcement accepting Sikkim as part of India, the draft joint declaration does not make any reference to Sikkim.

But the "big story'' is the growing trade relationship — bilateral trade has now reached $5 billions — and is poised to grow further.

``If the present trend in (trade) growth rate continues, the target of $10 billions as envisaged by the (then) Chinese Prime Minister (Zhu Rongji) during his last visit to India (January 2002) may be achieved in the next five years,'' Arvinder Singh, an Indian scholar on China, said at a recent seminar.

The "Chinese goods phenomenon", that is the influx of cheap Chinese goods in the Indian markets, that created quite a stir in India two or three years ago, has not deterred Indian business from exploring opportunities in China, according to Dr. Singh.

Despite all this, there remains a certain stiffness in bilateral interaction. The ghost of "historical baggage'' still seems to be hovering around.

The former External Affairs Minister, Jaswant Singh, renewed contacts with Beijing after the "China-as-a-threat'' scenario receded into the background. "The threat chapter is over. The Pokhran chapter is now behind us... we've lost time, but that phase is over,'' Mr. Singh said in Beijing on June 16, 1999.

His successor, Yashwant Sinha, said here on January 27: "India and China have shown the wisdom to move ahead in their bilateral relations even as contentious issues such as the border dispute are separately addressed.''

``India's policies will not be based on fear of Chinese power nor envy of China's economic achievements. They will be based on the conviction that a prosperous India is inevitable. So is a strong and prosperous China,'' Mr. Sinha added.

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