Wang Yi's 'undiplomatic visit'

Wang came here to impose views, terms

It is no surprise that the visit of China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi to New Delhi did not result in any agreement to end the Sino-Indian impasse along their disputed border in eastern Ladakh, much less in opening a path to better relations between the two countries. Wang deliberately queered the pitch even before coming here. Speaking at the OIC meeting in Islamabad on the eve of his India visit, Wang endorsed the support of some OIC members to secessionist aspirations in Kashmir, even saying that “China shares the same hope.” Surely, Wang knew that his provocative remarks would not go down well in New Delhi. It indicates, therefore, that resolving the border crisis through talks was not even on his agenda. He was in Delhi primarily to get Prime Minister Narendra Modi to participate in the upcoming BRICS summit that China will be hosting, and that on Chinese terms – telling India to put the border issue in a ''proper position'' in bilateral relations, view each other's development with a win-win mentality, and cooperate at multilateral forums.

Wang’s call to put the border issue in the “proper position” is basically a reiteration of Beijing’s long-standing approach, which is that India should set aside the border dispute and cooperate with China on other issues. Indeed, India did adopt this approach on its own for many years – as long as Beijing did not egregiously violate the many agreements on maintaining status quo and peace at the border. Trade between the two countries grew, and so did India’s economic dependence and the trade deficit, but the dispute festered. Beijing’s repeated incursions into the Indian side of the LAC and its violation of border agreements surged, especially since around 2013, underscoring the fact that ‘normalisation’ of ties without addressing the border dispute is a false idea, one that has left India more vulnerable to Chinese aggression.

At the meeting with Wang, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar rightly stressed that for India, normalcy means a “stable and predictable relationship” and that it is possible only if “peace and tranquillity” are restored at the border. Jaishankar underscored that disengagement of troops along the LAC at all friction points is key to the next steps. Wang said that India and China should be cooperating on global security and development issues. True, but it cannot happen so long as China keeps up the tensions along the LAC. India has done well to prioritise defusing the border crisis first. Jaishankar should have insisted not just on disengagement along the LAC but on de-escalation and a return to status quo ante as of April 2020. It cannot be business-as-usual with China as long as Beijing remains insensitive to Indian concerns.

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