The visit of Congress President Sonia Gandhi to China at the official invitation of the Chinese Communist Party Chief and the country’s President Hu Jintao will give the much needed confidence for both sides to push forward the Sino-Indian strategic relations. This new found pragmatism shown by the two Asian giants is of great significance given their past relationship—China’s invasion of Tibet, the 1962 border war and open support for Pakistan and also the mistrust in Delhi over Beijing’s covert support to ‘nationalist’ groups operating in the northeast region. While the border issue will remain a sore point, Sonia’s visit and the warm welcome given to her in Beijing is but an indication that both countries are aware that cordial ties and improving mutual trust between them are of utmost importance to regional peace, security and development.
Here it will not be out of place to mention that improving ties between Beijing and New Delhi will likewise have a positive impact on the Indo-Naga peace process. This is more so given India’s own security apprehension on its eastern borders and the fact that the Nagas are seeking an honorable political settlement outside the framework of the Indian Constitution and in the process pushing for a special federal relationship between “India and the Nagas” revolving around a Joint-Defence Mechanism. However, the Government of India it is reported does not want to dilute its defence power under any circumstances. Evolving a strategic relation with China will allay some of the security concerns of New Delhi vis-à-vis the Naga talks. Likewise, the positive proposal from the Chinese President, Hu, to turn the disputed Sino-India boundary into a “bond of good neighborliness and mutually beneficial cooperation”, is an affirmation of a more benevolent foreign policy course that Beijing is willing to pursue given the changing nature of international politics. In this context, the common understanding reached earlier between the two sides to speed up efforts to resolve the nagging boundary dispute needs to be appreciated. For both countries, the focus must be to engage one another on multiple mutually beneficial areas of cooperation and let the border dispute remain where it truly belongs, the backburner. This is the right thing to do for both countries.
The timing of Sonia’s visit is also significant in other ways and more so politically at home when the UPA government is hard selling both the nuclear deal and economic reforms to its Left partners (but without much success). Sonia’s eulogizing on the astounding development made by China is a clear message to her communist allies that the national and global need not be always antithetical and countries can pursue an independent foreign policy within the broad framework of its enlightened national interest. As the Chinese Communist Party is showing, ideological maxims alone cannot bring about national salvation. This is clearly reflected in its scientific outlook on development and in the party’s theoretical innovation suited to both global changes as also the country’s national interest.
