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Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Thursday (June 23) attend the BRICS leaders’ summit, hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping and being held virtually this year.
In the lead up to the summit, the National Security Advisers of the five BRICS nations held talks, which took place on June 15. As Suhasini Haidar reports, the NSAs meeting was one of two multilateral events attended by India and China on the day that marked two years since the Galwan Valley clash along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Last Wednesday, New Delhi also hosted a border security conference of SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation) countries, that includes officials from China, Russia, Pakistan and Central Asian countries. Neither side made any statement on the anniversary of the Galwan clash, reflecting the current balancing act in relations where there is a freeze in many areas of bilateral ties but continuing engagement multilaterally.
National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval interacts with his counterparts from China, Russia, Brazil and South Africa during the BRICS National Security Advisor and High Representatives’ virtual meeting on national security, in New Delhi, June 15, 2022. | Photo Credit: PTI
Two years on after the June 15, 2020 clash, military commanders and diplomats have negotiated disengagement at several points like Pangong lake, Gogra and Galwan, but have not yet made a breakthrough at patrol points in Depsang, PP15 in the Gogra Hot Springs area, and Demchok. So far, 15 rounds of military talks have been held and a 16th round is expected shortly. Speaking this weekend, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said talks will continue. “There are areas where they pulled back, we pulled back. Remember, both of us are very much in advance of what our pre-April positions were. Has it all been done? No. Have we made substantial solutions? Actually, yes,” Jaishankar said. “It is hard work. It is very patient work, but we are very clear on one point, which is, we will not allow any unilateral attempt by China to change the status quo or alter the LAC... I do not care how long it takes, how many rounds we do, how hard we have to negotiate — this is something we are very clear of.”
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar addresses the Delhi Dialogue-XII, in New Delhi. | Photo Credit: PTI
India has also made clear that until there is a resolution on the LAC, there cannot be a return to normalcy in the rest of the relationship. Bilateral trade may be booming given that there is a long-term and structural dependency on many imports that cannot be changed overnight, but investments from China have taken a hit and there is continuing scrutiny on Chinese companies. Vijaita Singh reported this weekend that the Central government has recommended disciplinary action against 400 Chartered Accountants (CAs) and Company Secretaries (CSs) for their alleged role in incorporating Chinese shell companies in metropolitan cities by flouting norms and rules. This is among a series of measures taken by the government against Chinese business entities.
Meanwhile, in what’s emerging as another flashpoint, India has slammed China for blocking a proposal to list Pakistani terror convict and Lashkar-e-Taiba/ Jamaat-ud-Dawa (LeT/JuD) deputy chief Abdul Rahman Makki as a UN Security Council-designated terrorist. Calling the decision by China to place a “technical hold” on the listing requested by the United States and India this month “regrettable” and “extremely unfortunate”, India said that China’s actions ran counter to its claims of combating terrorism. It added that evidence against Makki was “overwhelming”.
Abdul Rahman Makki
In a conversation with The Hindu, former foreign secretary Shyam Saran shared his thoughts on the situation along the LAC on the two year anniversary of the Galwan clash, and said New Delhi must continue to push for a return to status quo ante.
In this week’s Worldview, Suhasini Haidar examined the current state of India-China relations two years after the Galwan clash. You can read or watch her analysis here.
An exclusive interview with Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister
Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. File. | Photo Credit: AP
India has “really helped” Sri Lanka in its efforts to cope with the island’s economic crash, the island nation’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told The Hindu’s Meera Srinivasan in an interview, however observing that aid coming in from different sources has put Sri Lanka “in the middle of geopolitics”. Commenting on foreign investment, Mr. Wickremesinghe welcomed the Adani Group’s entry into the country’s energy sector, despite the group’s project being caught in a controversy, after a top Sri Lankan official told a Parliamentary panel that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had “pressured” President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to clear the $500 million renewable energy project in northern Sri Lanka. “If the Indian government was really interested, I would have been told about this by Prime Minister Modi or his office. I haven’t got any request to expedite it,” Mr. Wickremesinghe said in the interview.
Top Five
What we are reading this week - the best of The Hindu’s Opinion and Analysis
1. Sushant Singh assesses the national security implications of Agnipath, the new recruitment scheme for India’s armed forces that has triggered a backlash as well as protests.
Chapra: Smoke billows out after youngsters set on fire a train in protest against the ‘Agnipath’ scheme, at Chapra Railway Station, in Saran district, June 17, 2022. | Photo Credit: PTI
2. Meera Srinivasan reports from Sri Lanka on the country’s north, whose economy was already set back by war and is now suffering from the current economic downturn.
3. Stanly Johny writes on the significance of the Black Sea and how Moscow is trying to squeeze Ukraine’s access to the strategic waters in its south.
4. Former NSA M.K. Narayanan on the use of cyberweapons in the Russia-Ukraine war.
5. Srinivasan Ramani on the broader implications from British Home Secretary Priti Patel giving the go-ahead for extradition of WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange
