China must heed India’s concerns to coax Modi on board the belt and road caravan
Manik Mehta says greater sensitivity to India’s concerns over territorial integrity, as well as fighting terrorism and Nuclear Suppliers Group membership, would help China make its case with New Delhi
While the just-concluded One Belt One Road Forum in Beijing had all the trappings of a colossal international spectacle, with leaders and politicians from around the world smiling for the international media and photographers, the absence of some political heavyweights served as a stark reminder that all was not going according to President Xi Jinping’s ( 習近平 ) choreography.
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Xi would have liked to see one leader who was conspicuously missing: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Miffed by Chinese attempts to undermine India’s interests, Modi declined the invitation to attend the summit in Beijing.
India, a rising power in its own right, has a number of grievances against China: first, China has tried one ruse after another to block India’s entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group, although the overwhelming majority of NSG members favour India’s inclusion.
China has argued that both India and Pakistan should become members. This was a condition that not only angered India but also other countries, particularly the US, which has strongly condemned Pakistan’s nuclear proliferation activities and its clandestine supply of technology to North Korea.
China’s behaviour at the UN Security Council has also caused heartburn for India. China has blocked India’s bid to get Masood Azhar, head of the Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed, added to the international blacklist of terrorists, although the remaining 14 council members supported India’s bid.
Indian activists hold up posters of Masood Azhar as they protest against the attack two days before on an air force base in Pathankot, believed to have been masterminded by the Jaish-e-Mohammed chief, in Mumbai on January 4. Photo: AFP
Azhar, accused of masterminding Jaish-e-Mohammed’s attack in January on an Indian air force base in the border town of Pathankot, is also known to have preached extremist ideology and jihad at several British mosques during a month-long visit to Britain in 1993, inciting young Muslims to seek arms training in terrorist camps in Pakistan, British sources, including the BBC, have reported.
