Border, water disputes in focus as Khurshid heads for China

[selvan33]

Border, water disputes in focus as Khurshid heads for China

The question how India and China can more effectively manage persisting thorny issues such as the border dispute and trans-boundary rivers is expected to emerge as the centre of talks as External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid arrives here on Thursday.

Mr. Khurshid is scheduled to meet a top Chinese leader in the reclusive Central leadership compound, Zhongnanhai, on Thursday afternoon. He will later hold talks with his counterpart Wang Yi on his two-day visit.

Barring last-minute changes, the senior leader he is expected to meet is second ranked Li Keqiang, Premier, though Chinese officials, as is the norm, would only confirm that one of the seven members of the elite Politburo Standing Committee would meet Mr. Khurshid.

While officials said the focus of this week’s talks was on laying the groundwork for Mr. Li’s visit to India, expected on May 20, underpinning the discussions is the question how both countries can come up with more effective mechanisms to resolve problems that continue to strain relations.

The three-week-long stand-off between Indian and Chinese forces in Ladakh, which ended on Sunday after a series of flag meetings and intense diplomatic consultations, has set the agenda in the lead up to Mr. Khurshid’s visit.

Some Indian officials have come to see the April 15 incursion as tied to China’s recent moves to push for a border defence cooperation agreement, to which India has not yet responded in order to ensure its strategic interests are not undermined.

China has voiced concern at India’s recent efforts to boost border infrastructure, saying the moves violated the 1993 and 1996 agreements aimed at maintaining peace and tranquillity and reduction of troop levels.

Indian officials, however, point out that China has completed a massive upgrade of road, rail and air networks in Tibet, significantly widening the asymmetry across the disputed Line of Actual Control.

India’s wariness of tying itself down on the issue has been mirrored in China’s stalling on another sensitive question that has strained ties recently: dams on the Brahmaptura.

As first reported by The Hindu, China in January gave the green light for three new dams on the river, known as the Yarlung Zangbo in this country. India has conveyed to China the need for a mechanism more robust and transparent than the current system of sharing hydrological data through joint working groups. China has, so far, not responded to the move.

Lan Jianxue, a scholar at the China Institute of International Studies and former deputy head of the political section at the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi, acknowledged that both sides needed to “start to delicately lay a sound, solid, multifaceted and mechanised foundation for future robust bilateral relations.”

On the Ladakh stand-off, he said: “There is no need to deny the existing mechanism for a single unexpected incident.” “These existing agreements and mechanisms that are fully observed help to maintain peace and tranquillity in the China-India border area substantively.”

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told reporters on Wednesday: “China hopes that this visit by the Foreign Minister Khurshid will push forward bilateral relations.”

“China always believes that China and India are important developing countries and emerging economies,” she said.

The peaceful resolution of the Ladakh stand-off, Ms. Hua said, “shows that the two countries agreed to protect the safety, security and peace of border areas.”

“A proper and timely settlement of border issues serves the common interests of both countries,” she said, “and is also their common aspiration.”
Border, water disputes in focus as Khurshid heads for China - The Hindu

 

[selvan33]

Incursions won't push India into signing border deals: Khurshid

BEIJING: India is expected to give a firm message to China's new leadership that the recent incursion in Ladakh cannot push New Delhi into border 'deals' favourable to Beijing during external affairs minister Salman Khurshid's visit beginning on Thursday, sources said.


The incursion is to cast a shadow on some carefully laid plans by foreign policy officials of both countries as they hoped to craft a forward-looking agreement during Chinese premier Li Keqiang visit to India later this month, his first after assuming office. They are now working on drafts of a basic agreement that will help save face on both sides and recover the lost ground, the sources said.

But during his interactions, Khurshid is likely to convey India's "fiercely" independent foreign policy to the Chinese leadership.

Khurshid has some tough negotiations ahead of him because his visit is meant to lay the ground for Li's India visit around May 20. Li will also visit Mumbai in a move to boost bilateral business ties. China is already the biggest supplier of power machinery and is now looking to expand its footprint in the Indian markets for telecom and agriculture equipment.

It is still not clear whether Li will invite Khurshid for a meeting after he holds talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. Invitation by the premier will be seen as a signal that initial discussions have made progress.

Wang, a career diplomat who has been chosen partly because of his expertise on Japan, is expected to discuss India's relationship with Tokyo and the issue of Chinese access to the Indian Ocean. Beijing desperately wants India to give a cold shoulder to Japan, its main rival both in business and territorial disputes over sea islands. China also fears India tilting towards the US-led combination that includes Japan.

In turn, Khurshid might discuss China's arms supplies to Pakistan, a cause of serious concern to India. But the two countries are likely to avoid discussing infrastructure developments on both sides of the border, the sources said.

"We would like to continue to work with the Indian side to safeguard peace and tranquility on the borders for a steady development of bilateral ties," Hua Chunying, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman, said on Wednesday. Expressing satisfaction over the recent agreement between military commanders in Ladakh to resolve the incursion issue that had even put a question mark on Khurshid's visit, she said, "It shows the two countries agreed to protect the peace and security of the border areas".
Incursions won't push India into signing border deals: Khurshid - The Times of India