By IANS,
New Delhi: Advocating more “prudent” analysis of India-China relations, former foreign secretary Shivshankar Menon said Wednesday that recent “alarmist and uninformed” comments about their ties have not been useful.
“We have a spectacle of breast-beating and wailing which must be of great comfort to those who are hostile to India,” said Menon at the launch of a book “Chasing the Dragon: Will India catch up with China?”.
The book, written by Mohan Guruswamy and Zorawar Daulet Singh, was released by Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal.
Menon, who had also been Indian ambassador to China, lamented that while Indian analyses of economic parameters with China were “first rate”, the same could not be said about the strategic and political sphere.
“If you look at recent comments on China, they have been even more alarmist and uninformed,” he said, adding self-deprecatingly: “Even from me.”
“I am amazed at the confidence at which assertions are made about the border situation,” he said, pointing out that most of the commentators do not have access to privileged information.
“This is worrying,” Menon maintained, pointing out that the sensitivity of relations required a more reasoned approach, which will be a “major test of our statecraft”.
“The seriousness and sensitivity of the relations was (apparent) when China made the gratuitous and unnecessary remarks about the prime minister’s visit to Arunachal,” he contended.
India hit back at China Wednesday by asking it not to help set up projects in Pakistani Kashmir as Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee rejected Chinese opposition to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s trip to Arunachal Pradesh, a region Beijing claims.
“We hope the Chinese side will take a long-term view of India-China relations and cease such activities in areas illegally occupied by Pakistan,” the external affairs ministry said, a day after Beijing came out with an unusually strong criticism of the prime minister’s visit.
Speaking in Kolkata, Mukherjee made it clear that “Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India” and that the just-concluded elections to the state’s assembly were held under the Indian constitution.
Menon, who retired earlier this year, said that China had undergone a lot of change in the last few years. “Not all the changes have been positive and smooth in the bilateral relationship, so it would be prudent and in our self-interest if we analyse these changes coolly and rationally to devise a solution,” he stressed.
Relations between the two Asian giants have been strained in recent months, especially after the Indian media raised questions about incursions by Chinese troops across their disputed boundary.