By M.R. Narayan Swamy, IANS
Beijing : Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Siingh Tuesday ended a path-breaking trip to China seeking improved all-round ties between two of the world’s fastest growing economies and calling for a time frame to end their lingering border dispute.
In three days of hectic engagements during which the chemistry between Manmohan Singh and his Chinese counterparts was palpable, the two countries pledged to take their two-way trade to a new high of $60 billion by 2010, deepened their new-found military ties and signed 10 pacts covering a range of areas as well as a vision statement outlining their strategic roadmap.
The Chinese print and electronic media gave prominent coverage to Manmohan Singh’s maiden visit to Beijing, and by the time he boarded Air India One in the evening to head home, Chinese experts on Asia were praising him profusely.
Rong Ying, director of the South Asian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), described Manmohan Singh as a “highly regarded and respected” man. He noted that Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao hosted a private dinner for him Sunday night – an unprecedented gesture for any Indian leader – and that their talks were held in very warm atmosphere.
Manmohan Singh did not gloss over the differences that still plague Sino-Indian ties but he repeatedly emphasized the complementarities between the two Asian giants. After four continuous hours of engagements between the two premiers Monday, Indian diplomats said that New Delhi and Beijing had reached a stage where they understood one another much better – a far cry from the times when they fought a bitter war along their Himalayan frontier in 1962.
Hours before departing, Manmohan Singh addressed a gathering of Chinese intellectuals and urged that India and China should be at the forefront of the emergence of a more democratic international order. He declared that the UN Security Council, where China holds a permanent seat – a status that India desires – no longer reflected global reality.
China said it “understands and supports India’s aspirations to play a greater role in the UN, including in the Security Council” – a stand Indian officials said was a marked step forward on Beijing’s part.
The Indian prime minister also told the CASS that India and China – which account for a third of humanity – needed to cooperate “in creating a world of positive externalities and mutual prosperity, rather than one based on balance of power calculations and animosity.
“This involves India and China working together closely to ensure a global order in which our simultaneous development will have a positive influence not only on our own economies but also on the rest of the world.”
An agreement Manmohan Singh and Wen signed after bilateral talks made it clear that it was time to build “a relationship of friendship and trust, based on equality, in which each is sensitive to the concerns and aspirations of the other”. It said India-China ties were not targeted at any country.
The two countries agreed to hold their second joint military training exercises in India this year, the first having taken place in December in China. They revised their bilateral trade target to $60 billion by 2010, establish a high-level Business Leaders Forum and hold the second India-China Defence Dialogue, also this year. Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath pointed out that India and China comprised 40 percent of the world market.
Knowing well that the world was watching his mission to Beijing, Manmohan Singh declared: “India-China relations are of regional and global significance”.
Premier Wen has been invited to visit India while Indian President Pratibha Patil was urged to come to China as part of continuing high-level bilateral engagements.
Ma Jiali, an expert on Indian affairs, said: “As the military mutual trust between China and India grows, army exercises will become an important part of military communications between the two countries.”
China is now India’s second largest trade partner and poised to become the largest. India is China’s 10th largest trading ally. Although trade is the current highlight of their cooperation, the two governments see eye to eye on issues such as energy security and conservation. And they are also coming together in third countries by forging strategic business partnerships.
“The relationship between India and China is now better than any other time in history,” declared Sun Shihai of the CASS.