Great opportunity for China, India to join hands

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a one-hour bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the 25th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) at Tianjin in China on Sunday. The meeting gains significance because both China and India are facing the US President Donald Trump’s tariff onslaught.

If India faces a 50 per cent tariff on its exports to the US, China faces a 125 per cent duty on exports to China. China is the second biggest economy, next to the US, and India is at the 4th position, poised to move to the third position sooner than later. But relations between India and China have been strained because of the violent stand-off on the border between the two countries in India’s Union Territory of Ladakh.

After five years, relations between the two countries are getting normalized. China has agreed to lift the curbs on export of rare earth minerals to India. And there is a move to resume direct flights between Beijing and New Delhi. At the delegation-level bilateral meeting, Xi said that India and China are not rivals but partners, and that the dragon (China) and the elephant (India) can get closer to each other.

Modi on his part said that the relations between the two countries should be based on “mutual trust, respect and sensitivity.” The general reading of the new-found bonhomie between the two Asian giants is attributed to their tariff troubles with the US. Whether this can serve as a bond between the two countries remains to be seen. India and China are prickly neighbours. Both aspire to be leaders of the Global South, and they even dream of replacing the US at the top of global power pyramid. There is intense competition between the two, even if the frictions are sorted out.

But there is much scope for the two to be partners in economic matters. There is enough room for the two to expand their footprint. At the moment, China is the leading figure because of its greater economic muscle power. Its foreign aid, though much less than that of the US, is quite large, and it is extended on a strict business basis.

China is looking for advantages in the African countries where it is giving aid. China is in many ways cornering the mineral resources in Africa. China needs access to the mineral resources to keep its economic growth chugging.

India has greater communication rapport with the Western countries, including the US and European Union (EU), for various intangible reasons. The use of English language is one of them. Western leaders are more at ease in conversing with Indian leaders. There is a cultural Wall of China that stands between China and the West.

Necessity makes it necessary for the West to have a closer dialogue with the Chinese leaders, and it is happening at a brisk pace.

There is a perceptible decline of Western dominance in the world, and it is an opportunity for both China and India to make the 21st century into the Asian century. They can and should do it together instead of trying to steal the show from each other. Each one of them has its own strengths and they can combine to contribute to the development of the less developed countries, and also add to global prosperity.

Until the arrival of Trump for his second term as American president, there has been a great rapport between the US and EU. There is need for a similar rapport between China and India. Majority of countries both in Africa and Asia will have greater trust in China and India in the position of global leaders. It is a great opportunity for the two countries to join hands.