NEW DELHI – India will seek to ‘recalibrate’ ties with China and build oncommonalities after a difficult year.
“We will deepen the areas of convergence. But we will continue to hold onto our core interests and positions,” a senior government official said oncondition of anonymity. This will also include India maintaining itsopposition to the multi-billion dollar BRI, which aims to link Asia andEurope with a slew of infrastructure projects.
New Delhi believes that while the India-China relationship will continue toinclude elements of both cooperation and competition, it is time to work on“commonalities” in the relationship and build on it, rather than focus onthe differences.
This is particularly true because of the stress that the relationship hasgone through in the past year. Friction over the Dalai Lama’s ArunachalPradesh visit, the 73-day military standoff on Bhutan’s Doklam plateau,India’s opposition to the BRI, China’s opposition to India’s membership inthe Nuclear Suppliers Group, and its role in preventing Jaish-e-Mohammedchief Masood Azhar’s blacklisting by the United Nations has widened thetrust deficit between the two countries.
Over the past few months, there has been a conscious ‘recalibration’.
Foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale visited Beijing earlier this year. India,in an advisory issued by the cabinet secretary, asked senior ministers andpolitical leaders to stay away from events meant to mark the Dalai Lama’s60th year in exile as a ‘signal’ to China that it respected Beijing’ssensitivities and core interests.
The Chinese foreign ministry has spoken of how the “Chinese dragon andIndian elephant” must not fight, but dance with each other. On March 22, ameeting of the working mechanism on Consultation and Coordination forIndia-China Border Affairs emphasised the importance of maintaining ‘”peaceand tranquillity” in border areas.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is slated to visit China and, as reported byHT on March 17, may have an informal summit with President Xi Jinping.External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and defence minister NirmalaSitharaman too will visit Beijing in April.
But despite the intensive engagement, India will not agree to what iscurrently China’s top diplomatic priority — the BRI.