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Another step forward in strengthening ties

Pallavi Aiyar

For India and China, resolving the border issue remains the key to developing a truly strategic partnership.

CLOSER TIES: National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan and Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo on the first day of the eighth round of the India-China boundary talks in Beijing on Monday.

INDIA AND CHINA began on Monday the eighth round of talks between their Special Representatives on the border dispute — National Security Adviser M. K. Narayanan and Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo — marking another step forward on the slow road to resolution. The latest round of discussions comes against a background of steadily warming bilateral relations. In the last year, the two neighbours have entered into broad cooperation in areas where they have usually been portrayed as rivals: energy, security, and defence. Bilateral trade is galloping ahead and expected to touch $20 billion before the end of this year. China is, in fact, expected to overtake the United States as India's largest trade partner within a few years.

Cultural ties are also being strengthened after a 40-year period of deep-freeze. India and China are currently celebrating a "Year of Friendship." Film festivals are being planned and the ancient link of Buddhism that threaded the two countries together centuries ago is being highlighted through photo exhibitions and the building of an Indian stupa-style temple in Henan province.

An exchange of high-level visits is also being worked on with President Hu Jintao expected to travel to New Delhi later in the year followed by a China visit for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The current set of talks between the Special Representatives began in 2003 following Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's visit to China, when it was decided to "explore from a political perspective" the overall "framework of a boundary settlement." The decision to give a political touch to the negotiations came after eight rounds of border talks between 1981 and 1987 and an additional 14 Joint Working Group meetings between 1988 and 2003 were held.

Despite discussions at varying levels over the last 25 years, little innovative thinking on the boundary is in evidence. The two sides have not even been able to agree on the Line of Actual Control or the verification of alignments of respective areas on mountain tops, rivers, and lakes.

China's traditional position has been to resolve the dispute on the basis of a territorial "swap" exchanging Aksai Chin in the west with Arunachal Pradesh in the east. This solution has been talked about ever since the 1950s, even before the 1962 war and was reiterated by Deng Xiaoping in 1980. India, however, has ruled out any "populated areas" as part of a border deal, which makes concessions in Arunachal Pradesh unacceptable. The area of Tawang is a particular sticking point since the Chinese claim it to be central to Tibetan Buddhism given that the sixth Dalai Lama was born there. The entrenched positions of the two sides thus complicates the project of a "swap."

Following the March 2006 round of talks between the Special Representatives in India, Mr. Narayanan later said that he was hopeful of arriving at a basic framework for resolution "within the next two to three rounds."

The focus of the current round of talks is on devising an agreed framework for a settlement of the issue on the basis of the "political parameters and guiding principles" finalised during Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to India in 2005. In a joint statement issued at the time, it was declared that "both sides should, in the spirit of mutual respect and mutual understanding, make meaningful and mutually acceptable adjustments to their respective positions on the boundary question so as to arrive at a package settlement."

The wording of the statement with its reference to the concept of "adjustments" implied a give and take of territory, invoking the old western-eastern sector "swap" idea once again. In the intervening time both Indian and Chinese leaders have emphasised that pragmatism is key to a swift resolution.

China borders 14 countries all of with whom it has at some point had boundary disputes. However, in recent years Beijing has managed to settle all but two of its land border disputes, to its own considerable advantage.

In 2004 for example, Russia and China made a final and comprehensive settlement of their border dispute. Since then strategic and economic ties between the neighbours have strongly strengthened.

For the last several years China has been focussing on the development of its economically backward interior western regions, including Tibet and Xinjiang. Massive infrastructure projects are being carried out including a railway line from Golmud in Qinghai province to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet which is scheduled to open on July 1. It is in this context that Beijing is looking to settle the boundary issue with India as well.

On July 6, the historic Nathula Pass between Sikkim and Tibet will be reopened for trade. The 4,545 metre high pass is only some 500 kilometers away from both Lhasa and Calcutta. Currently China and India trade mostly by sea. Indo-Tibetan imports and exports are usually routed through Tianjin, a port city in the north an hour or so from Beijing, involving a detour of thousands of kilometers. The reopening of the trade route through Nathula thus has significant potential for invigorating the economies of both north-eastern India and western China by linking Tibet to Kolkata port.

However, given the continued boundary problem, trade will in fact be limited to the border region and only a list of 40 items including goat skin, horses, sheep, yak tails, yak hair and China clay — largely unchanged from the days of the Silk Route, has been approved for import and export.

In the new millennium, the border problem has ceased to have the kind of centrality to Sino-Indian bilateral ties it once had. Both sides are focussing on developing healthy economic, cultural, and even military ties, even as talks on the boundary generate more talks. Nonetheless, resolving the border issue remains the key to developing a truly strategic partnership across the Himalayas.

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