The Rediff Special / T Karki Hussain
By combining with India's neighbours, China has strengthened its claim to a legitimate
engagement in South Asia
In South Asia where China continued to play partisan politics
against Indian interests and waged a protracted cold war with New
Delhi, the regional cold war has finally come to an end.
Last September, the two governments signed a significant accord
on peace and tranquillity on the Line of Actual Control, and agreed
to institutionalise the existing confidence-building measures
to maintain the status quo on the border till a mutually satisfactory
solution comes through.
All through the period stretching from the cropping up of Sino-Indian
differences and their long phase of apparent intractability
the Soviet Union remained the most intrusive variable of all.
The Chinese were piqued by Soviet neutrality in the 1950s when
they were still Soviet allies. Later, they saw Indo-Soviet relations
evolve into a strategic understanding to neutralise and counter
them in the region.
By the mid-1980s though, this proximity had
become notional. Corresponding to the thawing of relations, China's
subsequent regional policy has shed much of its anti-Indian orientation
which had motivated it to construct a strategic relationship with
Pakistan, besides encouraging other neighbours against New Delhi.
The latter has always aspired to a leading role beyond the confines
of South Asia, which it finds impossible to realise because of
China's effective challenges both within and beyond South Asia.
By combining with India's neighbours, China has come to be seen
as a counterweight to India and has strengthened its claim to a legitimate
engagement in South Asia affairs.
On the other hand, India has not been able to advance its influence
in Southeast Asia despite the fact that historically Indian culture,
values and institutions have permeated the region and its statesmen
have been held in great respect. In the recent past, its policy
of nonalignment has also been favourably received.
Despite some
reservations regarding security and defence linkages withe the
West, India had maintained friendly relations with all the regional
states and, at the formation of ASEAN, supported the idea of regional
grouping for promoting socio-economic cohesion. By contrast, the
Chinese characterised the ASEAN leaders as agents of American
imperialism.
However, Vietnam's isolation following the developments
of 1978 and 1979 ( a treaty with Soviet Union with explicit defence
connotations, its military invasion of Cambodia, its forcible
overthrow and installation of a government under Hanoi's auspices
and the continued presence of its military forces to prevent the
collapse of its protege) adversely affected India's image in the
region.
Indian sympathy for the Vietnamese national struggle and
subsequent support of is policies coupled with the Soviet link
has underlined a shared perspective to some extent. While the
proximity factor had complicated matters somewhat, it was recognising
the Vietnamese-installed government that India put itself in a
compromising position and was criticised for taking a lenient
view of Vietnam's violation of Khmer sovereignty.
Paradoxically, the same developments helped China entrench itself in the region.
Its recent shift of strategy from geopolitics to economic diplomacy
has further broadened its operational base. Chinese policy is
paying off. It is a dialogue partner of ASEAN and is being invited
to join the various newly mushrooming groupings meant for accelerating
economic interaction between East and Southeast Asia.
China is
also being included in the post-ministerial talks on regional
security. India has yet to be invited to join the Asia-Pacific
Economic Co-operation Forum and remains only a 'sectoral
partner' with ASEAN. The status quo may change in India's
favour as the area of co-operation gets enlarged and many hitherto
unexplored avenues become the focus of attention.
Here again,
one may anticipate that with the disappearance of the Soviet irritant
and China's normalisation with Vietnam and India, the dynamic
economic players which include the overseas Chinese community
would look forward to India as an equally attractive proposition.
Excerpted from India and Southeast Asia
edited by Baladas Ghoshal, Konarak, 1996, Rs 150, with the publisher's permission.
Readers may direct inquiries about the book to Mr K P R Nair, Konarak Publishers, A-149,
Main Vikas Marg, Delhi 11 00 92.
|