Taking a hard look at President Barack Obama’s visit to India, a section of the Chinese state media is calling it a journey that was “symbolic than pragmatic,” which would fail to bridge vast differences between the two countries over major issues including the environment and food security.
An Op-ed run by the Xinhua news agency points out that reduced to its bare bones, the “superficial rapprochement” between the two countries was a deal—a face saving cover before the U.S. Congress by the Obama administration on account of its less than successful “Pivot to Asia” policy and India’s commercial demands.
“For one thing, Obama's "Pivot to Asia" policy has been distracted or even derailed by the undying conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine,” said the article. The write-up was referring to the Washington decision to amass bulk of its forces in the Asia-Pacific, under the U.S. Pacific Command, apparently to enforce the containment of China.
It added: “He (President Obama) needs this trip to tell the Capitol Hill and his supporters that his administration can make progress on important relations. More frankly, he needs India to side with him.
For India, a closer relationship with the United States is compatible with its multi-faceted diplomacy and could be commercially beneficial.”
The daily observed that three days are surely not enough for Mr. Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to become “true friends,” given their hard differences on issues like climate change, agricultural disputes and nuclear energy cooperation.
“For climate change, Obama has made the issue a policy priority for his second term and pressed emerging economies like India to shoulder disproportional share of burden.
However, being the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, India is heavily dependent on coal-fueled plants. As a matter of fact, economic growth and eradication of poverty is more urgent for Indian officials than cutting carbon emissions.”
Regarding agricultural disputes, differences between Washington and the New Delhi for months stalled the implementation of the WTO's Trade Facilitation Agreement.
“Concerning nuclear energy cooperation, Washington and New Delhi have long been engaged in a complicated dance since 2008.”
The op-ed stressed that, “only one year ago, U.S. diplomats were expelled from New Delhi amid widespread public outrage over the treatment of an Indian diplomat in New York.” Mr. Modi, when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat, had been “banned from entering the United States.”
