India Asks China not to “keep Shifting Goalpost” on Bilateral Issues
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 26: The disputes over claims on the international borders apart, differences between India and China have kept growing on various issues forcing India to ask China to “avoid shifting of the goalpost” and calling “unscientific approach” to China’s stubborn refusal to allow return of Indian citizens working in China.
India has told China not to “shift goalposts” and “confuse” managing the border affairs and restoring peace at the frontiers with the larger issue of the resolution of the boundary question, which is dealt with by different designated mechanisms.
After the standoff erupted in eastern Ladakh in May last year, India has consistently maintained that peace and tranquillity in the border areas are essential for the overall development of relations between the two countries.
India has also expressed “disappointment” over China’s reluctance to permit the return of thousands of stranded Indian students, employees and their families due to the Covid-19 pandemic describing it as an “unscientific approach” to a purely humanitarian issue.
Over 23,000 Indian students, mostly studying medicine, and hundreds of Indian businessmen and workers along with their families have been stranded in India for over one year as China, where the pandemic was first reported in late 2019, has suspended the visa process as well as flights from India citing the Covid-19 situation.
Calling on Beijing to “avoid shifting goalposts” by blurring the immediate challenge of managing disputed border areas with the longer term negotiations to resolve the boundary dispute, India’s ambassador to China Vikram Misri said, “both sides needed to follow past agreements and pursue both objectives on parallel tracks.”
The meeting held virtually was co-hosted by the School of International Studies of Sichuan University (SCU), China Centre for South Asian Studies and Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA) in which several former envoys and scholars took part. Besides Misri, China’s Ambassador to India Sun Weidong also participated in the meeting. The transcript of the meeting held on September 23 was released on Sunday.
Besides being neighbours, India and China are also large and emerging economies and “it is not unusual to have differences and problems but the key question is how to deal with them and ensure that outcomes are informed by reasonableness, maturity and respect for the maintenance of peace and tranquillity along our frontiers,” Misri said.
Underlining the obstacles that India-China relations currently face, “The first is to avoid shifting goalposts.” He said both sides continued to have conversations about resolving the crisis on the Line of Actual Control, and following disengagement at Galwan Valley, the north and south banks of Pangong Lake, and most recently at Gogra last month, were now taking up remaining friction areas.
“For long, the Indian and Chinese sides have adhered to a well-understood distinction between resolving the boundary question and managing border affairs,” he said. “The 1988 understanding between our leaders was precisely for keeping the resolution of the boundary question on a track separate yet parallel to the bilateral relationship, with maintenance of peace and tranquillity as the prerequisite. The Special Representatives mechanism, the Agreement on Political Parameters and Guiding Principles of 2005 and the three-phase framework were all designed to work on the boundary question, which we agreed was a complex and sensitive issue requiring time to work through.”
“On the other hand,” he said, “for managing border affairs on a daily basis, we evolved a mechanism, consisting of instruments such as the WMCC [Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on border affairs] and a succession of agreements, protocols and CBMs, to govern behaviour on the ground and ensure peace and tranquillity. A serious violation of peace and tranquillity in the border areas naturally requires us to apply our minds on the basis of established agreements, protocols and mechanisms to resolve it. As we do so, any attempt to confuse border affairs with the boundary question is a disservice to the work of those involved in finding solutions.”
He said this was why India had been “consistently saying that the current issue is about restoring peace and tranquillity to the border areas and is not about the resolution of the larger boundary question, on which our stance has not changed, despite what happened last year,” referring to the crisis in eastern Ladakh.
The India-China border dispute covers the 3,488-km Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China claiming that Arunachal Pradesh as part of South Tibet which is firmly rejected by India.
Chinese officials in statements have justified Beijing’s mobilising of thousands of troops along the LAC last summer by citing China’s territorial claims, including to the Galwan Valley, and accusing India of infringing on those claims. Indian officials have said China’s unilateral actions went against the four border agreements that govern the behaviour of troops in disputed areas. The agreements also acknowledge both sides’ differing claims to the LAC. Clashes in the Galwan Valley in June last year led to the death of 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese troops, marking the worst violence since 1967.
Contradicting China’s charges, India’s Ministry of External Affairs had said, “It was the provocative behaviour and unilateral attempts of the Chinese side to alter status quo in contravention of all our bilateral agreements that resulted in serious disturbance of peace and tranquility.” China’s Foreign Ministry had earlier claimed that the Galwan Valley clash “was caused by the Indian side’s illegal trespass of the LAC to encroach on Chinese territory.”
Referring to “multi-faceted dialogue” held by the two countries since last year including several rounds of talks between the top military officials on both sides and the meetings between External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi to resolve the military standoff in Eastern Ladakh, Misri said: “These contacts have resulted in significant progress on the ground.”
Referring to “multi-faceted dialogue” held by the two countries since last year including several rounds of talks between the top military officials on both sides and the meetings between External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi to resolve the military standoff in Eastern Ladakh, Misri said: “These contacts have resulted in significant progress on the ground. The experience of this multi-faceted dialogue over the last year and a half leads me to believe that we are well-equipped when it comes to resolving pressing issues in the bilateral relationship,” he said.
“The conversation between the two sides continues regarding the remaining locations and we hope that disengagement at the remaining friction areas will enable us to reach a point where we can pick up the threads of bilateral cooperation,” he said.
“The recent experience also suggests that at the ground level when managing a difficult bilateral situation, finding a resolution hinges on mature minds, open channels, and consistency between words and actions. But while these are positive elements we can draw on, we must steer clear of certain obstacles which could block progress,” he said.
“This is the root cause of the tense situation along the borders. We advocate that we should address the boundary issue through peaceful negotiations and we don’t think that the border issue should be linked up to our bilateral ties,” he said.
“As EAM (External Affairs Minister) Dr S Jaishankar has stated, India-China relations must proceed on the basis of the three mutuals” mutual respect, mutual sensitivity and mutual interests”, he said. “In an international community where we interact as equals, and as important major neighbours of each other, it cannot be that only one side’s concerns are of relevance while the other side’s case goes unheard,” he said.
Safeguarding territorial integrity and national security holds equal value for both sides. Affixing blame exclusively on the other side is not a helpful approach, he said. “And to press one’s own concerns and disregard the other side’s concerns and sensitivities without any explanation or recourse goes beyond disrespect. It actually creates even more obstacles to finding solutions,” he added.
“Another obstacle is viewing bilateral relations through the prism of relations with other countries. We are two ancient civilisations and two modern Asian nations who have evolved their own independent foreign policies and cherish their own strategic autonomy,” he said.
“For India’s part, I would say that a policy approach that came into its own over six decades ago, continues to be relevant today. India formulates its national and foreign policies on the basis of national interest first and foremost,” Misri said. “We believe in multilateralism but we are also convinced that it needs to be reformed in order to better deliver its fruits to all stakeholders”, he said.
Both countries engaged in key global dialogues while simultaneously pursuing their objectives in several smaller forums whose members have shared interests, he said. “Many of these forums include China” the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation), BRICS (Brazil Russia, India, China, South Africa) and RIC (Russia, India, China) are some examples of this and these dialogues have continued even during the difficult phase that our bilateral relationship is passing through,” Misri said.
“India-China relations, therefore, must be judged and managed on their own merits. They are substantial enough and sufficiently complex that they require their own approach and appropriate handling, without imaginary third factors complicating them further and distracting us from working on our priorities,” he said.
The two nations must focus on the actual issues that face them, and employ a “sensitive and constructive problem-solving approach” while bearing in mind each other’s essential autonomy of decision-making, he said. “Addressing and processing differences properly means confronting them head-on and not sweeping them under the carpet. This approach will enable us to do what is necessary to bring relations to a healthier track,” he said.
“I remain convinced that we can resolve our current difficulties without the outcome necessarily appearing to be a win or loss for either side. A win-win solution for both India and China is very much possible and we remain committed to pursuing it,” he said.
Misri called on both sides to address the other’s sensitivities. “Affixing blame exclusively on the other side is not a helpful approach.” He said both had space to cooperate on issues including tackling the pandemic, concerns about terrorism in the region and the situation in Afghanistan.
On the prevailing pandemic, Misri referred to the woes of the stranded Indians, and said “Far less complex issues, which have a purely humanitarian context and are not connected to bilateral diplomatic stances, such as facilitating the movement of students, businesspersons and stranded family members from India to China for over a year and a half now, await a more balanced and sensitive approach.”
“I might add here that India has also attempted to keep our trade and commercial relationship insulated from current differences, for instance by continuing to issue visas to Chinese businessmen to visit India,” he said. “However, we are disappointed to see an unscientific approach with regard to several problems currently being faced by Indian students, businessmen, marine crew and exporters, to name a few,” the ambassador said.
Earlier this month, responding to questions on China lifting its travel restrictions on foreigners returning to the country, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said Beijing stands ready to maintain close communication with all parties on issues related to international travel. “The global Covid-19 situation remains grave and complicated. Referencing the practices of other countries, China adjusts its management measures on in-bound travellers accordingly as the epidemic situation evolves.
“China stands ready to maintain close communication with all parties and properly manage the work related to international travel on the premise of ensuring effective epidemic control,” the foreign ministry spokesperson had said.
