Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sent out his strongest signal yet that he wants relations with China to be brought back on track by saying on Wednesday, ahead of his meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in Vietnam on the sidelines of the East Asian Summit, the first since the Chinese triggered a crisis by issuing stapled visas to people from Jammu and Kashmir, that “the world is large enough to accommodate the growth ambitions of both India and China”.
With Hanoi looming — Dr Singh meets Mr Wen during the concurrent Asean summit on Friday in his first meeting with the Chinese leader since the controversy — he gave the the issue the go-by, preferring instead to focus on his tried and tested line that the world was big enough for both of them.
Relations with China were being tackled along these lines, he said, even as officials close to the talks have let it be known that India is angered by the move that not only questions its sovereignty over Jammu and Kashmir but also indicates a clear shift in China’s previous policy which showed no tilt towards India or Pakistan.
Wary of escalating the war of words, Dr Singh will walk a fine line between expressing his concern and laying down the red lines that cannot be crossed. “It will definitely be raised,” said a source, adding that the specific issue of China’s move to issue a stapled visa to the Northern Command GOC-in-C, Lt. Gen. B.S. Jaswal (a Dogra), and the suspension of high-level defence exchanges would also be raised as India cannot allow Jammu and Kashmir to be used as a pawn by the Chinese in a grand plan to prop up Pakistan.
Speaking on “India’s development exercise” at Putrajaya, the gleaming new putative capital of Malaysia, Dr Singh said, “India and China are both fast growing economies. China happens to be the largest trading partner of India even though there is an imbalance.” Instead of looking at both nations as competitors, he said, “There is an enormous possibility of India and China working together.”
In his “Khazanah Global Lecture”, Dr Singh paid fulsome praise to the Chinese, saying that as a student no one had seen the rise of India or China or, for that matter, other Asian nations catching up with the industrialised world. “Today, the reverse is true. Few doubt that a fundamental change in the global economy is underway,” he said.