EDITORIAL

A Historic Summit

BY the standard of any measure, the Chinese prime minister Wen Jiabao’s visit to India was a historic success.  In his 24-hour stay in India’s capital, New Delhi, the Chinese prime minister had a series of meetings and events in which he, with exuberance, heralded a new, qualitatively higher, level of Sino-Indian relationship.  The summit meetings between the two prime ministers upgraded the status of the relationship to a “strategic and cooperative partnership”.  In all, a total of eleven agreements were signed.  In addition, a report of the Joint Study Group on Trade and Economic Cooperation was released.

Another significant outcome of the summit was the release of the guiding principles for settlement of the boundary dispute.  This document laid down the political parameters on the basis of which the government of the Republic of India and the government of the People’s Republic of China will  cooperate in order to resolve the dispute.  Noting that both countries are seeking a political settlement on the boundary question in the context of their overall long term interests and  convinced that an early settlement will advance the basic interests of both the countries, the agreement explicitly states that the differences on the boundary question should not be allowed to affect the overall development of bilateral relations.   Explicitly prohibiting the use, or, the threat to use, of force, the agreement says that the final settlement must cover all sectors of the India-China border. 

A welcome aspect of the agreement is that while reaching a boundary settlement, both the countries shall safeguard due interest of their settled populations in the border areas. This indicates that both countries are prepared for a “give and take” in areas that are now not populated.

Through the other agreements, emphasising the need for greater economic cooperation between the two countries, it was decided to set-up a task force to study the feasibility of a regional trading agreement. While seeking increased cooperation in the petroleum sector, the overall trade target was set to exceed $20 billion by 2008.

Chinese prime minister Wen Jiabao handed over a new official map to Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh clearly showing Sikkim as a part of Indian territory.  This has removed a long-standing irritant in Sino-Indian relationship of the past.

The joint statement issued at the end of the summit stated unambiguously that India and China agreed that their relations had now acquired “a global and strategic” character.  The statement, however, set at rest all speculations by declaring that India-China “strategic and cooperative partnership” is for peace and prosperity. 

The details of the agreements are so comprehensive that they are, indeed, trailblazing. For instance, there is a protocol in forming an India-China Film Cooperative Commission and a memorandum of understanding for constructing  an Indian-style Buddhist temple in Luoyang, China. 

We, through these columns, have, for long, been advocating a stronger cooperation between India, China and Russia in shaping better international relations and in ensuring that no effort at imposing a unipolar hegemony on the world can succeed.  Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, reassured the world that such a trilateral cooperation will help democratise international relations and safeguard world peace, security and stability declaring that China was positive towards trilateral  cooperation. The Chinese premier said that his visit to India had produced rich results and quoted Manmohan Singh as telling him that “we two are making history”.

Exuding confidence, the Chinese premier said that the 21st century could belong to Asia if India and China developed relations and worked together. Stating that both these Asian giants were friendly neighbours and not rivals, he reconfirmed that the slogan “Hindi-Chini bhai bhai” still held good. Summing up the Chinese  attitude, he said, “We wish to see India prosperous and developed, also a prosperous and developed China is in India’s interests”.

By all counts, this has, indeed, been a historic summit. The sincere implementation of  all the agreements will see a better future for both the Indian and the Chinese peoples and ensure peace, cooperation and stability in South Asia and in the world.