Bilateral Strategies and Development Agenda

Abstract

The recent visit of the Chinese president, Xi  Xinping, to India has great significance for both  the countries. The relationship between India  and China has always been one of distrust,  especially after the collapse of the friendship  attempt made by the then Prime Minister of  India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, and Mao, India’s decision to allow Tibet’s Dalai-Lama  (who Beijing considers a dangerous separatist)  to reside in India, and the Sino-Indian Border  War which followed in 1962. The border  dispute still continues with both countries  contesting land along their border in Ladakh  and China’s claim over India’s north-eastern  province of Arunachal Pradesh. India’s concern  also lies with the construction of the Chinese  dam on the side of the River Brahmaputra. Each country is also skeptical about the other’s  relationship with Third World countries. In  China’s case, India’s developing relationships  with countries in the Asia-Pacific, especially  Japan and the US; and in India’s case, China’s relationship with Pakistan. The Manmohan  Singh Government brought in new levels of  India-American co-operation which troubled  the Chinese, thinking that India would become a part of an American ‘containment’ policy.  Another cause of concern was when India  tested the Agni-5 ICBM in April 2012, expanding  the scope of India’s nuclear deterrent and  bringing the whole of China in range for the  first time. Narendra Modi was quite vocal about  the territorial dispute with China during his  campaign stating that China should give up its  policy of expansion. This has however been  considered as campaign trail rhetoric by Chinese foreign experts.