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30 August 2017
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| BRICS (The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions) |
China and India may have ended a tense border standoff for now, but
their longstanding rivalry raises questions about the possibility of meaningful
cooperation at an upcoming summit of major emerging economies.
The annual summit of the BRICS grouping
encompassing Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa gets under way this
weekend in the southeastern Chinese city of Xiamen, hoping to advance its
vision of an alternative to the Western dominance of global affairs. The Total Investment & Insurance
Solutions
The leaders of all five nations are expected
to attend, offering the best opportunity for Chinese President Xi Jinping and
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to talk since the border tensions flared in
June. While both their countries view BRICS as a significant forum for
progress, their rivalry for global influence and fears of containment by the
other threaten to overshadow those aspirations. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
The two countries' militaries are
"prowling the same spaces" along their land borders, in the Indian
Ocean and western Pacific Ocean, said Sreeram Chaulia, dean of Jindal School of
International Affairs in the Indian city of Sonipat. Even beyond the region,
they are vying in Africa and Latin America "for the leadership of the
developing world," Chaulia said.
"There is a contest, whether it is
acknowledged or not, and it is because of the ambitions of both nations to be
superpowers and to be inheriting the Asian century," Chaulia said.
Attempting to start the BRICS summit off on a
positive note, Beijing and Delhi on Monday announced a resolution of their most
protracted and potentially explosive border standoff in years. The
saber-rattling had raised fears of renewed conflict between the nuclear-armed
Asian giants, who fought a bloody border war in 1962 and remain locked in
disputes over extensive chunks of territory along their border.
Yet, while India's Ministry of External
Affairs said that troops were leaving the face-off site, China's official
response avoided any mention of Chinese concessions or the fact that troops
from both sides will continue patrolling in the area. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
"The attempt is to paint India as the
aggressor," said Sriparna Pathak, an assistant professor in international
relations at Assam Don Bosco University in the northeastern Indian state of
Assam. "Clearly, China wants to somehow portray itself as the winner in a
conflict which India had started and has now ... been forced to withdraw by
China."
Other sources of distrust include:
— Indian fears of Chinese encroachment in the
Indian Ocean. China announced Friday it had carried out military drills in the
western Indian Ocean, advertising its growing presence there. China is also
cooperating with Pakistan, Sri Lanka and other coastal nations on port access,
including for its navy.
— Indian wariness about the motives behind
Beijing's flagship "One Belt, One Road" infrastructure initiative,
which includes a key component in Pakistan — India's archrival but one of
China's staunchest allies. That adds to Indian frustration over lopsided trade
that saw China record a trade surplus of about $40 billion with India last
year.
— China has thwarted attempts by India to
gain permanent membership on the U.N. Security Council and join the Nuclear
Suppliers Group, or to label Pakistani militant Masood Azhar a terrorist.
— Beijing resents India's providing a base
for the Dalai Lama, and complained bitterly when the exiled Tibetan spiritual
leader was permitted to visit an Indian region claimed by China earlier this
year.
— Beijing fears what it sees as a U.S.-led
encirclement of China by Washington's allies and neighbors, including India and
Japan. Modi has sought to balance relations between China and the U.S., along
with others such as Russia and Japan, but Beijing continues to view New Delhi
as an upstart rival.
Given the recent hostility between China and
India, "the air between the two even at the upcoming BRICS summit will not
be a calm one," although they will likely seek to maintain appearances so
as not to be portrayed as the spoil sport, Pathak said. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
Still, the BRICS grouping holds considerable
allure for both countries, underscoring their support for regular meetings over
the past decade to discuss economic concerns and issues such as climate change.
Some observers see a multilateral arena like
BRICS as being one of the few places where the world's two most populous
countries can work together despite tensions. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
"There is competition and mistrust but
also some maturity where they are able to convert these face-offs into
face-saving solutions," said Chaulia. He said it was "quite
feasible" to put aside "bilateral bad blood" and have worthwhile
cooperation at BRICS. The Total
Investment & Insurance Solutions
"Both countries cannot hold the other
three, as in South Africa, Russia and Brazil, hostage to our narrow
nationalistic rivalries," he said.
The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
The recent border standoff has shown that
BRICS now needs to establish a method for sorting out "problems and
contradictions" between China and India when they arise, said Zhang
Yansheng, chief research fellow at the Beijing think tank China Center for
International Economic Exchanges.
The summit is "a great opportunity to
communicate face-to-face and exchange views on the two countries' problems and
contradictions and the solutions to them," Zhang said.
The timing of the summit is also significant,
coming as the U.S. under President Donald Trump appears to be abandoning the
traditional global order, said Alka Acharya, professor at the Centre for East
Asian Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
Both China and India see BRICS as "a
very significant platform, particularly this time when the West is disengaging
from globalization as it had operated until now," Acharya said.
Yet, she added, "unless China and India
cooperate, this is not going to produce very good results. So this is something
I think is realized at the highest levels."The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
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