The Hindu : National : No rivalry with China: India

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 10, 2005

National

National

No rivalry with China: India

Amit Baruah

"The East Asia Summit is the beginning of a process" The summit is not going to supplant any existing cooperation mechanism

NEW DELHI: "We don't see any rivalry between India and China," a senior External Affairs Ministry official said on Friday when asked if New Delhi viewed Beijing as a rival in the context of the first-ever December 14 East Asia Summit in Kuala Lumpur.

"We are not looking at that kind of scenario [of any confrontation with China]," Rajiv Sikri, Secretary (East) in the Ministry, told presspersons ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's departure for Kuala Lumpur on Sunday morning.

Apart from the 10 member countries of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), India, China, South Korea, Japan, New Zealand and Australia have been invited for the inaugural East Asia Summit. Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to attend the meeting as a "guest."

Mr. Sikri admitted that the East Asia Summit was the beginning of a process. "We are not clear what the outcome will be," he said, adding that the summit was not going to supplant any existing cooperation mechanism. The leaders were expected to discuss future cooperative arrangements in Asia.

"What shape it [the summit] will take, it's difficult to say." The Secretary was, however, clear that the 10-member ASEAN grouping would be in the "driver's seat" as far as the summit was concerned.

Pointing out that India did not look at the East Asia Summit in geographical terms, Mr. Sikri said it was likely that leaders of the 16 nations would agree to meet again. Asked what was India's view about the fact that the United States was not invited for the summit, the Secretary felt that the process was open and inclusive. Future membership would be determined by countries meeting the criteria laid down by ASEAN.

On the free trade area (FTA) accord between India and ASEAN as part of the framework agreement for comprehensive economic cooperation signed in October 2003, Mr. Sikri stated that the two sides had now reached a consensus on rules of origin.

However, issues such as sensitive and negative lists remained to be sorted out. It would require a few more months for the two sides to conclude the deal.

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