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'India should be upfront in voicing opposition to China-Pakistan economic corridor'
New Delhi, April 21
India should be "upfront"
about voicing its concern and make known its opposition over a proposed
China-Pakistan proposed mega corridor project that is expected to pass
through Pakistan-administered Kashmir, says a former top diplomat and
negotiator.
"What China is doing in PoK (Pakistan-occupied
Kashmir) is a matter of great concern, and we should make the concern
known. There is no reason why we should not be upfront about voicing
opposition to what is being done," said former Indian foreign secretary
Shyam Saran, addressing a talk here on Monday evening.
According
to Saran, former chairperson of the National Security Advisory Board and
who has been involved in border negotiations with China, the Chinese
agreement with Pakistan says that the "final disposal of the agreement
will be when the Kashmir issue is resolved between India and Pakistan".
"To
say that India by raising the issue is creating an obstacle in
relations is not true...I don't think India should go about giving up
claims with China... That is not the right way of dealing with the
relationship," Saran said at a talk on "Overcoming History: Sino-India
Relations" at the India Habitat Centre.
During Chinese President
Xi Jinping's visit to Islamabad, both countries agreed on the
China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to link China's underdeveloped
far-western region to Pakistan's Gwadar deep-sea port on the Arabian Sea
via what is called PoK. The economic corridor is proposed to have a
massive complex network of roads, railways, business zones, energy
schemes and pipelines.
Saran said that during the first half of
the 1980s, India and China had discussed ways to settle the border
issue, based on what was known as a "LAC plus" solution, which would
entail territorial adjustments that would be politically acceptable, but
the Chinese "walked back". In 2005, the talks had seen some progress on
the sticking points of "settled population" and the "highest watershed"
on the Line of Actual Control, but the Chinese side again "started
walking back", he said at the talk organized by think tank Society for
Policy Studies (SPS).
Saran also said that both sides should look
at areas beyond the ticklish border issue to build convergences, like
on climate change, and on certain issues on the G20 platform that both
could work together on.
"We have to deal with the relationship in
the broader context, and not merely the border issue," said Saran, who
is now a Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy Research.
According to
him, India and China should hold dialogue on naval and maritime issues
as that could emerge as a new point of mistrust and conflict. He said
both sides had agreed to hold a dialogue on maritime issues, but it did
not happen. "It is essential to hold a dialogue on the issue so that we
don't have a new area of mistrust," he said.
Chinese submarines have been making port calls at Sri Lanka and other Indian Ocean rim countries, triggering concern in India.
To
the Chinese initiative of "One Belt one Road" - an economic
connectivity corridor through Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa -
Saran said that India should not have a "knee jerk reaction" to it but
try and see if there are ways that India could use the corridor for its
own purpose, while also dealing with the negative aspects of the
corridor project.
"Merely saying 'no' is not something that will
get us far," said the expert, adding that India has "not been very
successful" in pushing forward with its own initiatives like the Mekong
Ganga cooperation or the Indian Ocean Rim Association.
To the
Narendra Modi government's foreign policy proposal of "Project Mausam", a
transnational initiative meant to revive its ancient maritime routes
and cultural linkages with countries in the region, Saran termed it "a
kind of tokenism" that makes him "very uncomfortable".
"We
should be very clear in what we want to do. Merely saying we don't like
it (Chinese Silk Route proposal), and come up with another slogan is not
the way to deal with the challenge. We need to be far more serious and
invest far more in the relationship," he said.
Modi is set to visit China in May, when the border issue would likely be top the agenda besides economic and investment issues.