Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping met in Wuhan in a free-wheeling Summit without a formal agenda or an official statement at its conclusion. This was a wise and carefully calibrated decision. In essence this was an exploratory exercise in which neither party was expected to abjure publicly stated positions on a wide range of subjects. Speaking at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) of Foreign Ministers, India’s Minister of External Affairs made it abundantly clear that there could be no improvement in relations with Pakistan until Islamabad ceased aiding and abetting jihadi terror groups to infiltrate and attack targeted Indian sites.
China’s Foreign Minister, for his part, assured his country’s ‘all-weather friend, Pakistan’ of Beijing’s unwavering and resolute support for its ally; that such support was ‘rust’-free, transcending time and circumstance. There is substance behind such expectation. Pakistan’s China policy commands almost universal approval across Pakistan, matching the paranoid hatred of India, making the China-Pakistan axis uniquely durable. Which is why the agreement by India and China to cooperate on Afghanistan is of far-reaching significance: It sidelines Islamabad.
Nothing now is cast in stone, not even India’s opposition to China’s One Belt One Road project. There is a dawning realization in both New Delhi and Beijing that their relationship needs to open doors to the future instead of being rigidly anchored to much that was negative in the past. The Doklam crisis at the tri-junction of Sikkim, Bhutan, and Tibet, which provoked high octane rhetoric in China, gave way to a new Chinese attempt to understand Indian reality. Scorn was replaced by a measure of respect. The trust deficit was well understood, as India stood its ground. The change was detectable in China’s pronouncement on Nepal. It stressed common ground, which tied in with the policy of the new government in Kathmandu.
Beyond the region, India and China have been alarmed at the tectonic pressures applied to the geopolitical template by the capricious mood swings of US President Donald Trump and his administration. The traditional courtesies of diplomatic discourse have been replaced by coarse threats and intimidation, disrupting in an already fragile global order. The breach was the US invasion of Iraq in 2004, followed subsequently by a similar intrusion into Libya, these tragedies compounded in Afghanistan to this day. The loss of lives, the destruction of property and the scale of human displacement have been truly horrendous, without a tremor of remorse from America’s hubristic political class.. The wanton bombing of Syria by the US, France and Britain has been a wake-up call for much of the international community beyond the narrow, conceited confines of Europe and North America.
We come thus to the formation and development of BRICS, the acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. BRICS, the brainchild of President Putin, has come a long way since its foundation a decade and more ago. There is now a BRICS bank. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is a significant offshoot. The Western media in their arrogance are prone to confine the term international community to the European Union and North America. India and China are the two most populous countries in the world, with the Chinese economy second only to that of the United States Russia is a military superpower with a unique range of nuclear weaponry on land, sea and air.
Within BRICS is the strategic core of the Russia, India and China dialogue, with the parties meeting jointly and separately; it has a trilateral security architecture with two sets of bilateral relationships. Russia is the cog, with close ties to India and to China, and hence is a discreet catalyst in smoothening Sino-Indian relations. Zero sum games are yielding space to new diplomatic explorations. North and South Korea engage with each other directly; Japan and China are in close consultation on deepening their economic ties, even as the US initiates a tariff war with China, and espouses protectionism as a general policy. President Xi emphasized that China and India were current drivers of international growth, thanks to their robust economies. These discrete issues are in play as India and China seek to forge greater bilateral trust and understanding.
Dangerous signals from Washington
A new US law called ‘The Countering American Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) mandates the UJS President to impose sanctions states with transactions with Russian defence and intelligence entities. India, taking exception to such legislation, has lodged a strong protest to the US State Department. Voices within the Trump administration, such as Defence Secretary James Mattis, have appealed to Congress to exempt India and Vietnam from its provisions. This should be no consolation to India. The law will still exist and can be impose at any time of American choosing, a Sword of Damocles over India’s head.
There are commercial considerations behind such legislation. The United States desires a monopoly of global arms sales, as the dominance of its military industrial complex is eroded by Russian weapon systems, which in many cases is of superior quality to those of its American rivals. Imposing arbitrary sanctions is a gross violation of acceptable conduct and conforms to the laws of the jungle where might is right. Caprice towards Russia or Iran through the imposition of arbitrary sanctions is hugely counter-productive. Neither country is likely to bite the dust.
Baiting Russia, ascribing to it the ills and difficulties plaguing the West, has become a popular sport in much of North America and craven Europe, as pointed out in an edit-page article in an Indian broadsheet by Kanwal Sibal, once head of the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi. The personal abuse heaped upon President Putin in the Western media is clearly choreographed by their political establishments. The virulence of the language extends to the people and culture of Russia through well funded state broadcasters, and bears comparison with that of Nazi Germany. Asiatic Mongol Russia is the common message of Western air waves. Russia is well equipped to combat contemporary challenges, as it was in meeting those of the Teutonic Knights, Napoleon and Hitler and Hitler’s myriad allies.
The challenge for India is not simply the source of its weapons acquisitions; it is to withstand a disguised attack on Indian sovereignty, its traditional strategic autonomy, which in recent years elicited the admiration of the former US National Security Advisor and subsequently US secretary of State, the redoubtable Dr Henry Kissinger.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi would add to his stature by standing tall in defence of India’s national interest, as Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Narasimha Rao and Atal Bihari Vajpayee did in their time. Mr Modi would be speaking up for all of India, and not simply for the BJP.
Gambhir a sporting exemplar
Gautam Gabhir, erstwhile captain of the Delhi Dare Devils stepped down after a run of disappointing defeats for his team in the 20/Twenty Indian Premier League (IPL). His own loss of form with the bat was affecting team morale, hence he made a dignified statement, acknowledging his responsibility and handing over the reins to his younger 23 year-old successor Shreyas Iyer. Iyer made a dream start with a memorable unbeaten 93 from 40 ball , which took the Dare Devils to 219 for 4, and a massive 55-run victory over the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). Also on show for the Dare Devils was the precocious 18 year-old opener Prithvi Shaw, whose innings of 62 was studded with strokes of the highest class.
Iyer, Shaw, Gill and Sanju Samson embody a rich vein of young Indian talent. To their number must be added Ambati Rayudu whose resurgence with the Chennai Super Kings deserves recognition in the highest format of the game. As a 19 year-old in England in 2003, he smote 177 in an innings hailed by former England Test star David Lloyd [now an expert commentator]as truly superlative. Lesser beings have hogged the headlines, but at 32, Rayudu’s time has surely arrived. His panache deserves the highest international stage.
