India and China’s South Asian neighbours, battling COVID-19, are sending a clear message to the two giants — they need them as partners but not big brothers.
Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh — three countries which are actively engaging New Delhi and Beijing during the pandemic — are standing out in showcasing an “independent” foreign policy, squarely fixated on promoting their interests.
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However, among other South Asian nations, Pakistan is an exception because of its overwhelming strategic reliance on China, and animosity towards India.
Unsurprisingly, Nepal’s Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli unreservedly thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after India, leveraging its strengths in pharma, handed over 23 tonnes of hydroxychloroquine and paracetamol tablets to Nepal on April 22.
“I thank Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji for India’s generous support of 23 tonnes of essential medicines to Nepal, to fight COVID-19 pandemic,” tweeted Mr. Oli after receiving the consignment.
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But Nepal is also engaging China, focusing on “hardware” such as face masks, testing kits and ventilators that factories in the Middle Kingdom churn out en masse, to fight the virus. At the end of March, a Nepal Airlines Airbus 330 aircraft had ferried a large cargo of portable ventilators, thermometers, surgical and regular masks, COVID-19 test kits and other protection equipment from China. After an initial closure and partial re-opening for medical supplies on March 25, Nepal has now opened its Tatopani-Zhangmu border crossing with China for other items as well. Twelve containers of apples and garlic have crossed into Nepal earlier this month. Some of them were heading towards Kathmandu on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency reported.
Nepal-China frictions
But its close ties notwithstanding, the Nepal-China relationship, especially at a civil society level, has not been without frictions. In February, 17 newspaper editors in Nepal solidly defended the former Kathmandu Post editor Anup Kaphle, who had been slammed in a statement by the Chinese embassy in Nepal for re-publishing an article that had appeared in The Chicago Tribune , critical of China’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis.
Like Nepal, Bangladesh has also benefited from the regional health diplomacy pursued by India and China. On March 25, 10 days after Mr. Modi spoke to other SAARC leaders on a COVID-19 containment strategy , Bangladesh received from India 30,000 surgical masks and 15,000 head-covers. This has been followed by a second tranche of medical supplies.
On its part, China started offering assistance to Bangladesh by sending the first batch of 500 fast test kits as early as February 22, Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha , the country’s national news agency quoted Li Jiming, Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh, as saying last month.
Mr. Li also also revealed that the China-Bangladesh Friendship International Exhibition Centre in Dhaka, fully funded by China, would be turned into a makeshift hospital for the COVID-19 patients.
Indian armed forces
Despite close ties, Dhaka has baulked at the prospects of involving Indian armed forces in combating the pandemic in Bangladesh. It has responded sharply after an Indian news agency reported last month that the Indian Army was readying separate teams to be deployed in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan to help those countries boost capabilities to deal with rising cases of the novel coronavirus.
Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen, in response to a question by Bangladeshi daily New Age, said: “ We do not need such assistance , rather we are sending teams to different countries,” to contain the disease.
In the fight against the pandemic, Bangladesh is spotlighting its aspiration to transit from a recipient to a donor country, providing Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) in the region in the fight against the disease.
During his interview, Mr. Momen stressed that Dhaka had extended support to Maldives, Bhutan and China to combat COVID-19.
Bangladesh’s contribution
Bangladesh image-makeover efforts have included a contribution of $1.5 million to the COVID-19 emergency fund announced by Mr. Modi during the SAARC conference. The subtext of the donation is clear — Dhaka wants to be seen as a fledgling donor of humanitarian aid in the region, rather than a perennial recipient.
Sri Lanka, known for its hypersensitivity towards safeguarding its “sovereignty” has also objected to any situation that could involve the presence of Indian armed forces to fight the pandemic. Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Kamal Gunaratne spelt out the red-line, following the Indian media report, that Colombo had made no request for the involvement of Indian troops in the Island state.
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So far, India has sent Rapid Response Teams to Maldives and Kuwait, comprising medical staff from the armed forces within the ambit of its HADR doctrine.
Nailing the balancing act between India and China, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa told The Hindu in a February interview that “... we are (a) friendly country and we have friendly ties with all countries in the region. We are friendly with China too. But the Indian relationship is much stronger and very important for us.”
