The most noteworthy aspect of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to China is for him and his hosts to agree to “actively seek” an “early political settlement” to the boundary question. The Indian perception of the Chinese dragging their feet in sorting out the boundary mess has antagonised public opinion in this country for decades while public opinion in China is known not to give the matter a second thought. The asymmetry in perception that exists is thus sharp. The seeming resolve on both sides to look for an early political settlement, outlined in the joint statement to mark the visit, is an indication of a possible new stage in bilateral ties. Practical questions remain, however.
It is not yet known how this intention is to be given shape, and whether new instruments are needed to take the dialogue forward. The time taken to achieve the end is obviously an unknown. Therefore, in concrete terms, it is hard to determine what the political take-away from the visit has been. We will also need to know what China may seek in return for settling the boundary.
Before the Indian Parliament agrees to modify its resolution which proclaimed that “not an inch” of territory is to be ceded to China, Prime Minister Modi must secure in border negotiations a formula that our Parliament can find acceptable. In the past, obliquely made Chinese proposals have not been acceptable to India. China has also retracted ideas it once put forward. Serious boundary talks can only begin when the Chinese side at least agrees to supply to the Indians its perception of the Line of Actual Control as contained in Beijing’s maps. Beijing has resisted doing this for long. Mr Modi has therefore done well to press the Chinese to let us know their delineation of the LAC, in the absence of which many threatening transgressions by PLA troops have taken place in recent times.
The Prime Minister was also forthright about expressing concern in Beijing about China’s decision to have a $46-billion infrastructure plan for a China-Pakistan corridor that will cut through Indian territories in the Northern Areas of Kashmir under Pakistani occupation for six decades. Since the issue has been raised, the Modi government will need to develop a plan to deal with this new question in relation to China.
Against the advice of the Union home ministry and the security sector, the Prime Minister has agreed to clear e-visas for Chinese tourists in the hope that China will scrap stapled visas for Indian citizens from Arunachal, which Beijing claims. A high-level commission is to be appointed to help resolve the imbalance in India’s trade with China. These may be useful steps but they essentially point to the region of hope.
