Prashant Kumar Sharma
In a bid to seek Chinese support for membership of NSG, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a fervent appeal to the Chinese President to make a “fair and objective” assessment of India’s application, before the plenary of the 48 Nations grouping that recently came to an end in Seoul, could not materialize. In response, China did a fair and objective assessment on India’s application through objecting India’s entry to the group contending that India’s entry would violate the principles of International NPT legal regime as India has not still signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Huge boisterous voices triggered over the India’s attempt to get the membership of the elite club known as ‘Nuclear Supplier Group (NSG)’ provided the possibilities of China blocking India’s way vehemently, and that apprehensions soon became reality as the NSG plenary held at Seoul recently concluded with no concrete outcome over India’s entry into this group despite its special session that stretched past midnight to discuss India’s application. China was observed to be taking the lead on raising objections to India’s entry. It is reported that China blocked India’s entry to the NSG not because of the political reasons, but on technical grounds. Countries like, China, Brazil and Turkey, wanted NSG to formulate a criteria through which all non-NPT member’s cases could be considered for their admission to the group.
India did not get an open support from China despite India showing its in-depth confidence in China for supporting its cause. It was expected that bilateral relation between two countries would be hampered given any NSG fallout. This sort of ambience became prevalent not only in India, but also in China. It was apparent in the fact when China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying stated, “We do not believe that it is an issue concerning the bilateral relationship between China and India”, and sought to insulate bilateral ties with India from the headwinds emanating out of the debate over the question of India’s entry into the NSG. India seemed to be wary in its reactions over the outcome and still fully confident owing to its credentials and goodwill to get the membership in the near future.
It is well known that India and China have witnessed many vicissitudes in their relation since 1962. There are a lot of bilateral concerns that both countries need to address. The issue of resolving the border dispute is one among many. Recently, Prime Minister of India, Mr. Modi stated, “India had a number of problems with China and efforts are on to resolve them one by one through talks.” There is a widespread feeling among Indians and global communities that it is China who does not want to see a prosperous India and does not want to contribute to India’s aspiration to global power status. It often seems that China uses Pakistan as an excuse for India to create hindrances in the name of maintaining strategic balance in South Asia.
Shyam Saran, a former Foreign Secretary of India, in one of his pieces, The writing on the Great wall, has highlighted the confident and assertive Chinese strategy that China plays against India. He says, “There is a clear enhancement of China’s commitment to Pakistan, not only as its traditional proxy against India but also because it has been assigned a key role in Xi Jinping’s ambitious One Belt, One Road project. Moreover, it is to relegate India to the minor league by clubbing it together with Pakistan, thereby dismissing the de-hyphenation which the U.S. has projected at least rhetorically. This also seeks to reject the India-China hyphenation which U.S. strategy appears to promote. China considers itself as being in the same league as the U.S.” In addition, Atul Aneja, in his article, China no barrier to India’s NSG entry, says academic, has quoted Chinese academics as saying that, “NSG is not all of China-India relations. It is not the most important issue between two countries. Entry into NSG is not a strategic and urgent need for India’s development. So be patient.”
In ancient times, the great Indian strategist, Chanakya, and Chinese strategist, Sun Tzu, in their masterpieces, Arthashastra and The Art of War respectively, have extensively discussed about how diplomacy should be carried out in various situations. Most possibly, there advices befit in the present day Indian context. Suhasini Haider, in her article, Picking up the pieces from Seoul, has quoted Chanakya, “The welfare of a state depends on an active foreign policy, and if the end can be achieved by not fighting, I would not advocate conflict.” Moreover, Sun Tzu mentioned, “To fight and win all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.”
Hence, it would be in the mutual interests of the both countries to perpetually proceed ahead adhering to their diplomacy going beyond the NSG issues because any pause in the relations would halt the solution of all outstanding bilateral concerns that remain to be addressed. Perpetual diplomacy and optimal solution of their pressing issues will not only help the present generation but it will save the future generation from any possible catastrophe induced owing to the unresolved concern that will be a hilly burden over the people of the both countries. This hilly unresolved burden might turn into a situation like, an Alps mountain impossible to lift. Thereby, India, indeed, needs to break its neighbor’ resistance without fighting; resorting to diplomacy is the only way out and an order of the day.
Prashant Kumar Sharma is a Ph.D Research Scholar Centre for South Asian Studies School of International Studies Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi
Courtesy: http://www.wisdomblow.com/?p=6781
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