India News:

India has its way, fends off pressure from China on US

Pranab Dhal Samantathe indian expressPosted: Tue Nov 16 2010, 05:36 hrsWuhan:======================================================================

Much of this pressure flowed from the Russia-China joint statement in September last week that came right after the tensions in the South China Sea which saw the US threaten to move in some of its naval assets after Chinese claims on maritime channels in the area. Beijing took on Tokyo, when it raised a protest, and started laying territorial claims on islands which the Japanese thought had been settled.

This is one issue on which Russia is on the same page as China and has made it increasingly difficult for Japan by reopening the Kuril islands dispute. Both countries have stepped up tremendous diplomatic pressure on Japan which is also being felt by other Far East and South East Asian countries like South Korea and Vietnam. In this context, the US intervened and sought to assert itself in defence of what it termed the principle of freedom of navigation.

Over the past two days, Russian and Chinese diplomats have been working hard on the Indian side to make it agree on a new security architecture for Asia-Pacific. While agreeing to the basic premise of an open, balanced, transparent, inclusive architecture, the Indian side is clear that the US is also a stakeholder in the process and cannot be left out.

India’s position is still evolving on the issue, but it is clear that it is not fully in agreement with Russia and China on this. Sources also pointed out that despite these differences, both Russia and China have strong bilateral relationships with the US.

The situation, as India views it, is far more complicated and one in which, perhaps, the principal target is Japan whose pre-eminence in Asia-Pacific stands challenged.

Here again, New Delhi’s instinct seems to be more in favour of Japan. For these reasons, the conversation on Asia-Pacific dominated the proceedings here but failed to reach a conclusion that would have satisfied either Beijing or Moscow. On the other hand, New Delhi felt it held out well and yet, not closed its options.

But India anticipates the pressure to only increase, particularly with visits of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev lined up next month.

Interestingly, the one area where the three foreign ministers did not seem to have a major problem was Iran, where host Yang Jiechi began by saying that the three countries had no difference on this issue and preferred dialogue over confrontation. Yet, there were issues over mentioning UNSC or IAEA resolutions in the joint communiqué. Finally, neither was mentioned except for a reaffirmation on Iran’s right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy and call for dialogue as the principal means of settling any dispute.

India found itself fending off some well-orchestrated pressure from Russia and China to echo their concerns against the US and its partners like Japan on the question of security in the Asia-Pacific by endorsing a set of “non-bloc principles” in the Russia-India-China communique.

Not only did India resist this, but also ensured that the formulation which went into the joint communiqué was the one it had suggested and one that all countries found was “politically correct”.

“The ministers stressed the need to develop an open, transparent, inclusive and balanced security and cooperation architecture in the Asia-Pacific region based upon universally agreed principles of international law and giving due consideration to the legitimate interest of all states. The ministers agreed that experts from three countries should study this issue.”

The reference to non-bloc principles was removed and while India differed in its interpretations from Russia and China to what this formulation means, sources said, it was one with which none of the members could find fault. The other two countries, in fact, wanted India to agree to start a trilateral dialogue among officials on this but New Delhi said it was too pre-mature and instead suggested an exercise by experts and academics.

(the indian express)

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