Xi's vision should lead to India-China-Pakistan cooperation

By Sudheendra Kulkarni
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Sudheendra Kulkarni [China.org.cn]



Editor's note: China.org.cn has been authorized to publish this article based on Sudheendra Kulkarni's presentation at the International Think-Tank Symposium on "The 19th CPC National Congress: Implications for China and the World," held in Beijing on November 16, 2017.

The world is changing, and it will surely change faster after the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), last month. The increased pace of change, as well as its new direction, will be set by China’s rise.

China is sure to rise further in the years to come, thanks to the emergence of one man as its paramount leader, Xi Jinping. He now leads a China that is on its way to becoming the most powerful nation in the world, overtaking the United States in regard to many parameters of power, barring, thankfully, military outreach.

However, military spending and the projection of military power are no longer the top criteria for a nation’s standing in the world.

At a time when globalization demands that the leaders of major nations have a global vision and a global commitment, Xi Jinping towers over other world leaders.

Speaking with supreme confidence about China's future at the congress, he presented a vision and a rational roadmap for the attainment of the "Chinese Dream" with all-round "national rejuvenation." Its concrete form will be the fully-developed "modern socialist nation" by 2050 when "common prosperity for everyone will be basically achieved."

The Chinese leader is beginning to make more sense to the international community than any other contemporary politician. He spoke with conviction about the need to continue globalization, preserve stability and ensure world peace as a precondition for development of all nations.

He seemed to be reassuring any skeptic that, even as China enters an era that will see it "moving closer to center stage," it "will continue to play its part as a major and responsible country."

The Xi Jinping we have seen in the past five years, and the even stronger Xi Jinping who has now emerged on the Chinese and global landscape, provides enough indications that he is a leader who combines strength with sagacity. This is good news for India and the rest of South Asia.

China's rise and Xi Jinping's sagacity are an opportunity for India-China-Pakistan cooperation

China's ambitious Belt and Road Initiative is both an internal necessity for the future growth of the domestic economy, and also a wise and innovative attempt to give a positive push to globalization under non-Western leadership. It is a product of the wisdom of the ancient Chinese civilization applied to the needs and possibilities of the modern world.

India, like China, is another great and ancient Asian civilization, and they have interacted fruitfully in the past. Now, the time has come for Indian and Chinese civilizations to embark on a new era of interaction and cooperation, for mutual benefit and for the good of the world. China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) provides a rare opportunity for cooperation.

This paper argues that India should join the BRI without further delay. The Modi government's boycott of the BRI Forum in May 2017 was myopic, especially because all our neighbors and many major nations around the world joined it. The BRI has the potential to provide much impetus for trans-continental connectivity and the global economy.

Now that Xi Jinping’s cherished initiative has been incorporated into the CPC constitution, China will surely promote it with greater determination, and pour even more billions into it than before.

The biggest opportunity for both China and India is to cooperate in implementing a grand South Asian Economic Corridor under the BRI. South Asia’s combined population, over 1.7 billion, is the highest for any region.

South Asia is home to the largest number of poor people in the world. Yet, it is also the least integrated region in the world. In particular, transportation and market connectivity between India and Pakistan is unimaginably weak, for which both countries are to blame.

Two examples should suffice. Even though India and Pakistan are neighbors, there are no direct flights between the two capitals – New Delhi and Islamabad.

Another example: Pakistan’s leading newspaper Dawn carried an article by Anjum Altaf, a Professor at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) on October 27, 2017. The scholar bemoaned the near-total absence of cross-border trade, saying, “At the time when tomatoes were selling for Rs 300 a kilo in Lahore, they were available for Indian Rs 40 a kilo in Amritsar, a mere 30 miles away.”

Furthermore, he criticized politicians in his own country by quoting a minister as saying: “The Pakistan government will never allow import of any vegetables from an enemy country.” There are many Indian politicians who harbor similar anti-Pakistan attitudes rejecting trade with our Western neighbor, again seen as an “enemy country.”

Extend, expand and rename the CPEC to make India an equal partner

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project under the BRI, provides an opportunity for establishing much-needed economic connectivity and cooperation between India and Pakistan, and also three-way cooperation among India, China and Pakistan. For this to happen, the scope of CPEC should be expanded considerably by bringing in India as an equal partner.

To facilitate this, CPEC should be suitably renamed to India’s satisfaction. Furthermore, the renamed corridor should be extended to connect India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and the Central Asian republics – and, of course, China. This will provide India land access to Pakistan, and through Pakistan, to Afghanistan and the other countries in the region.

It will also provide China and other countries much-needed land connectivity to the vast Indian market.

India has objected to CPEC by saying that it passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and hence violates India's sovereignty and territorial integrity. China should respect and suitably address India’s legitimate concern. This can be done by a three-way India-China-Pakistan agreement that the corridor does not alter the sovereignty aspect of Jammu & Kashmir, and that any eventual bilateral agreement between India and Pakistan on Kashmir would be respected by China.

As a matter of fact, such an agreement, along with the extension of the corridor through PoK into the Indian side of Jammu & Kashmir would partially allay India’s sovereignty concerns, since India would, for the first time, gain access to PoK. Since Pakistan, too, would gain access to the Indian side [of the line], Kashmir would then become a bridge between India and Pakistan, and not a barrier.

Thus, India-China-Pakistan cooperation under the BRI provides a rare and valuable opportunity for the two countries to ultimately reach a peaceful solution to the vexed Kashmir issue, based on economic cooperation and shared prosperity.

India has sought to bypass Pakistan by gaining access to Afghanistan through Chahabar port in Iran, which is only 70 km from Gwadar in Pakistan, the southern end of the CPEC. This is a welcome move. However, it cannot be a substitute for India having direct land-access to Afghanistan and Iran through Pakistan.

Chahabar can, and should serve only as an additional route. In any case, there are reports that Iran wants Chahabar to be a part of the BRI. If that is the case, it means the BRI can become an overarching framework for a broader and more comprehensive connectivity project linking India, China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Central Asian countries.

Implement BCIM, link it to renamed CPEC, and create a grand South Asia-China Economic Corridor

My second idea is that India and China should cooperate for immediate implementation of the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) corridor, which has been under discussion for over two decades. This Kunming-to-Kolkata corridor has the potential to immensely benefit the four countries. Indeed, India's "Act East" policy will surely remain weak without the BCIM corridor.

My third idea is that BCIM in the east should be linked, through the northern part of India, to the renamed CPEC in the west. This will create a grand and comprehensive South Asia-China Economic Corridor, capable of changing the destiny of the most populous region in the world. This will give the biggest possible boost to peace and prosperity in South Asia, besides providing unparalleled impetus for Asian and global economic growth in the 21st century.

As a matter of fact, this Kunming-to-Kolkata-Kabul-and-beyond corridor will be nothing but a modern version of the Indian Subcontinent's own ancient "Silk Road" – from southern China to Bengal and on to Kabul.

Anti-China "Quadrilateral:" Neither India should attempt to contain China's rise, nor China should attempt to contain India's rise

It must be added here that, for this vision of the South Asia-China Cooperation Corridor to fructify, four tasks cannot be overlooked.

First, Pakistan must completely and uncompromisingly abandon its support for Islamist extremism, terrorism and separatism as a state policy against India. Indeed, Islamist extremism, terrorism and separatism pose an existential danger to Pakistan itself, besides being a grave threat to China.

Second, both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping need to develop strategic mutual trust so that India-China cooperation can be broadened and deepened in a sustainable manner.

Third, India and China should respect each other's core concerns, interests and aspirations, and alter their bilateral conduct accordingly.

Four, neither India nor China should do anything to contain, or create problems for each other's national rejuvenation. India cannot, and must not try to, contain China's rise. Similarly, China cannot contain, and must not try to, contain India's rise. Rather, both countries should realize that the rise of one is an opportunity for the other.

Disconcertingly, efforts are afoot to draw India into a new U.S.-led anti-China "Quadrilateral" (Japan and Australia being the other partners) as an elusive "alternative" to the BRI. This "Quadrilateral" is more security-focused and less development-focused. India must not fall into this trap. The best course for India is to stay independent and to partner with China in the BRI on an equal footing. It is better for India to work closely with its neighbors than with distant "allies."

It is necessary and useful for both India and China to recall the following wise words of Mahatma Gandhi, the greatest peacemaker in modern times, who wrote in 1942: "As a friend of China, I long for the day when a free India and a free China will cooperate in friendship and brotherhood for their own good, for the good of Asia, and for the good of the world."

Let us make this vision come true.

Sudheendra Kulkarni is the chairman of Observer Research Foundation, Mumbai. He was an aide to India's former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He welcomes comments at sudheenkulkarni@gmail.com.)

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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