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Right Sino-Indian move in right direction

author:Avinash Godbole
link   China Daily 2011-06-21:
 
 
 
India and China have resumed their military dialogue with the visit of a high-level Indian defense delegation to Beijing. This is a confidence-building step, and may be followed by the fourth bilateral defense dialogue later this year.

Although the resumption of military exchanges has gained little coverage in the Chinese media, it has drawn much attention in India and other countries.

Many anxious observers are following the development closely, because the fourth defense dialogue will take place at an extremely critical juncture. Despite the three defense dialogues held earlier, and notwithstanding the multiple meetings between the leaders of the two countries, the 2011 defense dialogue will be held under the shadow of recent history.

Therefore, the 2011 defense dialogue would be considered a success even if the two sides agree to avoid recurrence of the kind of incidents that drove bilateral relations to their lowest level in the past decade. It will ensure that future dialogues on any issue do not have to start on a clean slate, too. Subsequently, the barest minimum that Sino-India relations will achieve after the dialogue is momentum, the key missing ingredient that can take the bilateral ties decisively forward.

Lofty ideals apart, the critical question here is how does one achieve all this? Here are some suggestions from an Indian perspective on what has been missing and needs to be done in the short and long terms.

First, the two sides have to allay threat perceptions. This is the core task of the dialogue. Increasing economic engagement has not been able to boost confidence at the bilateral level as far as India and China are concerned. India views China's engagement with Pakistan negatively. It is generally felt in India that unconditional Chinese support to Pakistan at this juncture would encourage the belligerence of its leadership.

India needs to reassure China of its strategic independence. In other words, China needs to be told that India is not and will never become a client state unlike its western neighbor. India also has to make China believe that it will not help increase Beijing's strategic uncertainties in addition to its Asia-Pacific dilemma.

Chinese scholars have been liberally citing the Indo-US nuclear deal in the context of the Sino-Pakistani strategic nuclear cooperation. But this kind of argument undermines India's strategic independence, which is evident in its recent rejection of American bidders for its combat aircraft deal. If India were a client state of the US, it would not have taken the decision to reject America's offer so easily.

Besides, when China is going all out to ensure its energy security as a developing country, it should be willing to give India the same space for energy development, because New Delhi's energy needs are equally pressing. In other words, India is not a party to any "encirclement" strategy against China, and Beijing should do its bit to assure New Delhi that the "string of pearls" strategy, a source of great worry for Indians, is not true.

Second, India and China should begin discussing nuclear security sooner than later, which will be a major confidence booster for both countries. They should start doctrine-level discussions to reassure each other of mutual "no-first use" strategy. This is especially crucial because India has become a player in the global nuclear debate. Though it may not be part of the initial process, nuclear-confidence building pacts should be discussed to enhance mutual trust. If peace is the ultimate objective, then dialogue and consensus building are the only ways to reach it.

Third, both countries have to prevent misinformation campaigns. Misinformation spreads when dialogue is absent. Regular dialogues and exchanges on military capabilities and doctrines can dispel misinformation. If workable understandings on capabilities do not develop on credible exchanges, hyperrealist nationalistic news tends to spread like wildfire.

China's views and ideas about international relations are certainly not hyperrealist. But because of lack of multidimensional dialogue and space for other perspectives, distorted versions of China's views about India are taken as truth by the sensitive Indian media.

More dialogues will create more space for diverse perspectives to be heard and told. At its minimum, it will create a chance for agreeing to disagree but within the framework of a sustained dialogue. Before India and China are able to concretize their mutual trust for a meaningful engagement, the fourth defense dialogue will do well to lay the path to sustainable peace between the Asian giants.

The author is a research scholar with the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses and doctoral scholar with the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
(2011-6-22 14:12:00hits:907)

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