Sino-Indian informal summits: Wuhan, Mahabalipuram and beyond
By Vishnu Prakash
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi observed during talks with China's President Xi Jinping that “our effort is to prevent differences from degenerating into disputes.”
The Chinese leader was visiting Mahabalipuram (Chennai) for the second informal summit October 11-12. He appreciated the one-on-one “candid discussions as friends” with his host that lasted six hours, in addition to delegation-level talks. They shared their respective national visions, challenges and aspirations to bridge the trust and perception gap between the world's most populous nations.
China and India are ancient civilizations separated by the great Himalayan mountains. Over the centuries, pilgrims, scholars and monks undertook long and arduous journeys to learn from each other. They penned fascinating accounts of life, learnings and achievements of the host regions. The renowned Chinese?Buddhist monk, scholar?and translator Hsuan Tsang, for example, travelled across India, including the present-day Chennai region, between 627 and 643 AD.
With a coastline exceeding 7000 kilometres, India has traditionally been a seafaring nation, enjoying close cultural, people-to-people and trade ties with East and Southeast Asia (ASEAN). The Chennai/Mahabalipuram region similarly had links with the Chinese region now centred on the Fujian province. But why the informal summits?
Truth be told, notwithstanding the cordial history, India and communist China are “frenemies.” Beijing seeks to construct a China-centric continental order that constricts India's role and developmental space. We fought a war in 1962. China occupies tens of thousands of square kilometres of Indian territory and claims even more.
Homilies apart, Beijing has refused to show sensitivity toward India's core concerns including that of the unsettled boundary, terrorism emanating from Pakistan, the ballooning trade deficit and India's membership of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) or NSG (Nuclear Suppliers Group).
India and China share more than 4000 kilometers of undelineated boundary (or LAC ― Line of Actual Control). Due to the unsettled border, hundreds of incursions take place every year ― by accident and design ― which are sorted out peacefully. Of late, thanks to the aggressive Chinese posture, incursions have periodically begun to spiral into military standoffs.
In 2017, a 73-day tense eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation took place at the Doklam plateau involving China, Bhutan and India. Quiet diplomacy by India, even in the face of Chinese bellicosity, defused the situation, just a few days before the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) summit in Xiamen.
It was at Xiamen that Modi suggested an informal summit, to enable the two leaders to have a free-flowing conversation on all issues of interest. The first informal summit took place in Wuhan in April 2018. Xi had agreed to such a format for the first time. Over two days, Modi and Xi spent eight hours together, covering the entire gamut of issues and opportunities in bilateral relations. There was no pressure of deliverables or high expectations of a breakthrough. The objective was to lower the temperature and deepen bilateral understanding.
Both sides believed that the objectives were met and that a new “Wuhan spirit” had been injected into bilateral ties. However, as expected, given the geostrategic divergences, the Wuhan spirit began slowly to dissipate. Despite making common cause with India on the issue of terrorism, China continued to protect Pakistani terror masterminds from being brought to justice.
Masood Azhar, a notorious Pakistan-based terrorist, for example, was shielded from being designated a global terrorist by the UNSC for 10 years. It was only when it was completely isolated, consequent to a suicide bomb attack by Azhar's outfit that consumed 40 innocent Indian lives, that China was forced to relent.
India was shocked when, in August and September this year, China led the charge against India, at Pakistan's behest, at the Human Rights Council in Geneva and the UNSC in New York, on the issue of Kashmir.
On August 5, the Indian Parliament amended the temporary provision under Article 370 of the Constitution, granting special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan immediately launched a campaign packed with falsehoods and half-truths to paint a dark picture, including that of a nuclear conflict.
The Indian External Affairs Minister had visited China soon after and had assured his hosts that the move had no impact on the LAC, but it was to no avail. It is a different matter that the Chinese intervention was soundly rejected by both the august bodies. It was against this background that the second informal summit took place in India.
The sides agreed to enhance strategic communication on all matters of mutual interest and to continue the practice of informal summits as they provided a very good platform for open, friendly and forward-looking dialogue.
It was decided to establish a high-level economic and trade dialogue mechanism to better balance trade and encourage mutual investments in identified sectors by developing a manufacturing partnership. Xi and Modi agreed that the simultaneous development of India and China presented mutually beneficial opportunities. Several steps were outlined to enhance cultural and people-to-people relations.
Xi, according to the Xinhua news agency, stated that cooperation of the “dragon and the elephant” was “the only correct choice for the two countries” and served their fundamental interests. China-India relations “had entered a new phase of sound and stable development” since the Wuhan summit. "We must … map out a hundred-year plan for the relations from a strategic and long-term perspective,” Xi said.
One wonders if India is willing to wait 100 years to find a modus vivendi with China, all the more so, as there is a significant amount of trust deficit between the two neighbors. China has great expertise in deflecting inconvenient issues, to the distant future, by using such flowery language, while doggedly pursuing its national interests by stealth. The militarization of the South China Sea is a good case in point.
While the jury is still out on the extent to which China would walk the talk, from India's perspective the most important outcome is the dialogue itself. It certainly helps in understanding each other's perspectives, bridging the communication gap and improving the atmospherics.
Since 2014, the Indian and Chinese leaders have met 18 times and have developed a good personal equation that augurs well for bilateral relations. In any case, India has learnt the hard way to be prepared for any eventuality, while continuing to explore ways and means to build on existing relationships.
Vishnu Prakash is a former Indian ambassador to South Korea.