Modi's visit to China is an opportunity
- By Sumantra Maitra
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail China.org.cn, May 12, 2015
The visit, as mentioned, will be high on rhetoric, and possibly quite low on actual constructive relations. However, the Chinese and the Indian sides should look into these following areas.
Urbanization and infrastructure are going to be the primary areas where India and China can constructively work together immediately in the future. There is unlimited potential in the urbanization drive currently in process in India under the new administration, and China is uniquely poised to provide material support and partnership.
According to a new Reuters report, urban dwellers will double to 800 million in India, a scale which is only comparable in modern history with that of China at the dawn of the millennium. The Indian PM vowed to build one hundred new "smart cities" by 2022, and as India constructs new cities, an infrastructure boom worth trillions of dollars, the growing demand for steel is taking it up to the top, ahead of the United States and China, the two largest steel users. That will be good news for Chinese steel exporters and construction companies as Chinese domestic demand for steel is poised to be flat.
The recent Nepal earthquake also proved to be an unlikely opportunity for the two powers to showcase their disaster management skills. The 38th Army of the PLA dispatched a team including sniffer dogs, while the Indian air force started a major air aid operation named "Operation Maitri." These two countries were the first two aid providers and were the two major rescue operators in the middle of the epic destruction.
It is understandable that these two countries were driven by their own geo-political goals in Nepal, eclipsing humanitarian urges, which is what basically what any traditional realist power would do, in a show of one-upmanship, but it also provides a lesson. If only these two powers can form operational and brigade-level joint task forces for disaster management across Asia, not only will that help enormously from a humanitarian perspective, it will also give them an operational insight into each other, and increase the operational interaction between the two armed forces, and act as a positive confidence building measure.
Afghanistan and Islamic terrorism can provide the third immediate area for Sino-Indian cooperation. The Taliban is killing Afghan forces at an increasing rate, and the collapse of the Afghan army is something which neither China nor India can afford. India and China both face enormous threats from Islamic extremism, and joint intelligence sharing and cooperation in stabilizing and training the Afghan army is something that both governments urgently need to pay attention to.
There are other aspects in the cooperation between China and India as well. People to people interaction is the key, as Chinese President Xi Jinping mentioned, and student exchanges, scholar exchanges and working holidays for both Chinese and Indians can provide opportunities which are mutually beneficial. Fortunately, both countries are now ruled by proactive leaders with strong mandates, and if they wish, they can contribute to renew the positive history their countries shared, and thereby seal their own place in history.
The writer is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/SumantraMaitra.htm
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)