- Jaishankar likely to deliver ‘special message’ to Chinese officials in Beijing
India’s Foreign Affairs Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Tuesday said that India is committed to maintaining steady relations with China despite the current diplomatic chill and some differences on a host of issues.
A day ahead of a new round of the bilateral strategic dialogue, India’s visiting official told China’s special representative for Sino-India border talks Yang Jiechi at Zhongnanhai, a former imperial garden that is now the seat of power, that he brought with him a ‘very strong sense of commitment’ to maintaining bilateral relationship.
Jaishankar is expected to deliver a special Indian message to Chinese officials when he will participate in the strategic dialogue with China’s Executive Vice-Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui. “There is likely to be a one-on-one meeting with Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi,” the Indian media reported.
The visiting foreign affairs secretary is likely to discuss China’s decision, along with other countries, to block India’s bid to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), a 48-member bloc that controls nuclear commerce. In December 2016, China slammed India for inviting Dalai Lama, a Buddhist leader, at a function in Rashtrapati Bhavan, and urged New Delhi to respect Beijing’s core interest in order to avoid any disturbance in bilateral ties.
Recently, in disregard of China’s solemn representation and strong opposition, the Indian side insisted on arranging for Dalai Lama’s visit to the Indian presidential palace, and a meeting with President Pranab Mukherjee, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in a strongly worded response. He stressed that the Dalai Lama was in political exile and has long been engaged in anti-China separatist activities with the attempt of separating Tibet away from China under the cloak of religion.
He also said that China was firmly opposed to any form of contact between officials of the other countries with him. “We urge the Indian side to see through the anti-China separatist nature of Dalai Lama clique, fully respect China’s core interest and major concerns and take effective means to remove the negative impact caused by the incident so as to avoid any disturbance to China-India relationship,” he observed.
During Tuesday’s meeting with Yang, Jaishankar said that the reconstituted strategic dialogue was not just a meeting between the two counterparts, it was preceded by consultations. Despite some problems, 2016 was a positive year, Yang said. “There is little doubt – despite Yang’s statement – that Sino-India relations nosedived last year,” the Indian media reported.
“It is particularly encouraging that the leaderships of China and India are aware of the important significance of a stable China-India relationship, having the consensus for an improved relationship between the two countries,” said Guo Suiyuan, South Asia expert at the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences. The strategic dialogue may open a new channel for improving understanding, he said.
It would be intrusive to recall the very formulation of NSG which in fact was the India’s proliferation activities. Now if due to international pressure and fostering the political and economic goals of USA and other international members favoring India’s membership in to the group would in fact make the non proliferation regime dented and more prone to be breached by the international states.
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