In a sign of suddenly accelerated contact between India and China, President Pranab Mukherjee will travel to Beijing at the end of May, sources confirmed to The Hindu . The President, who will also travel to Singapore on the same visit is expected to be in China in May last week, and will travel to Beijing and the South Eastern Chinese business hub of Guangzhou, also known for its Buddhist connection to India.
The trip, billed as a “return bilateral visit” for President Xi Jinping’s visit in September 2014, will come close on the heels of visits by Defence Minister Parrikar, NSA Ajit Doval, and the meeting between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Moscow, all of which took place within the past week. However, it is also expected to indicate India and China’s desire to put some of the tensions of the past few months behind them.
The tensions, which have been spurred mainly by China’s relations with Pakistan, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and its support at the U.N. on the issue of Masood Azhar’s designation as a terrorist, as well as by India’s ties with the U.S. and the recent moves to coordinate naval and military manoeuvres during the U.S. Defence Secretary’s visit, had meant a strain in ties since Prime Minister Modi’s visit to China last May.
“Until recently, China had felt India would maintain a balance between it and the U.S. But since U.S. President Obama’s visit to India in January 2015, they have had an apprehension that India is growing closer to the U.S., and that apprehension increased with the recent visit of U.S. Defence Secretary Ashton Carter,” explained Ravi Bhoothalingam of the Institute for China Studies.
A recent editorial in People’s Daily owned Global Times also dismissively referred to India’s push for closer ties with the US as that of its desire to be a “beautiful woman wooed by all men, notably the two strongest in the house, US and China.”
On the Indian side, External Affairs Sushma Swaraj raised the issue of China blocking India’s moves against terrorists based in Pakistan including Masood Azhar at the (Russia India China trilateral)RIC meet in Moscow, speaking of the need to end “double standards on terrorism”, a comment the Chinese government responded to sharply. NSA Doval is also expected to have raised China’s $46 billion CPEC infrastructure project which will run through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
President Mukherjee’s visit, which will include a State banquet hosted by President Xi Jinping may not impact the political tensions, but could succeed in lowering temperatures between the two countries, Mr. Bhoothalingam said, adding that the visit meant that “There is a clear effort on our side not to allow the strain in ties to develop further.”
