Fizz missing from Sino-Indian ties

JYOTI MALHOTRA

New Delhi, February 13, 2007 : India and China may be the fastest growing powers of the world, but the fizz still seems to be missing from bilateral ties.

In fact, as both foreign ministers, Pranab Mukherjee and Li Zhaoxing, met today, independently, for the first time in five years, the most they could publicly achieve was the setting up of a hotline between themselves.

Considering the stupendous range of mobile roaming facilities on offer internationally, it was the best that both Foreign Offices, still tarred with the brush of mutual suspicion, could do.

Mukherjee’s query on an alternative route for Indian pilgrims to Kailash Mansarovar, via Demchok in the western sector, seems to have got no satisfactory answer. The Chinese side only offered ``transport and medical facilities’’ for the pilgrims, meaning, that these hadn’t been on offer before.

Still, both sides could be applauded for making an effort, even if they remained defiantly tight-lipped on the status of the border negotiations that have now gone on for nearly four years. The only thing that is clear from the border talks so far is that there will be no exchange of settled populations, for eg in Arunachal Pradesh.

It was announced that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would be visiting China this year, and that the two Special Representatives on the border talks, National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and his Chinese counterpart Dai Bingguo, had been asked to speed up efforts to resolve all issues at hand.

Still, Chinese foreign minister Li Zhaoxing seemed flushed with the success of his journey to Nalanda on Monday. Officials said the Chinese side had kept the Indian side fully informed about their anti-satellite missile tests in space. It was reiterated today that these space tests ``were not aimed at any other country’’ and were only carried out for scientific reasons.

Both sides also failed to reach substantial progress on a regional trading arrangement, which China has been very keen on, and which will begin to take on a life of its own once China gets a toehold in the SAARC region when it becomes an ``observer’’ this April.

However, the current level of bilateral trade stands at a healthy $25 billion, which is set to double by 2010.

From labeling 2006 as the Friendship year, which merges seamlessly into Tourism year in 2007, both sides have also promised to liberalise visa regimes.


ENDS