They are a part of our extended neighbourhood. We have ancient historical, cultural and civilisational links with these countries. One of the major reasons SCO is important for us is the outreach it provides us to the Central Asian countries. In the SCO meets over the years, what distance has India come in achieving its key goals, and what do you think can be the reasonable expectations from today’s summit? Which is why there have been demonstrations against China in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, etc. The common people see that their national assets, their riches, are being taken away by China and they are not getting any tangible, economic benefit. But many of China’s projects are not beneficial for host countries, in terms of bringing in jobs or new technology or helping the economy. They are seeing that China will provide infrastructure, pipelines, buildings, transmission lines, etc. The elite, the ruling classes, are looking for investments. Other countries too are looking at this opportunity, such as Turkey, Iran which is going to become a member of SCO this year, and the United States and Europe.Ĭould you elaborate on how the elites may not have a problem with China, but the common man in these countries does? India has taken a number of steps in recent months to further strengthen and expand its partnership with the region. In that context, India has great possibilities and opportunities to strengthen its own relations with these five countries of Central Asia. In Opinion | What the Indian economy needs to compete with China But now these countries don’t want to have total dependence on one or the other. Earlier, Russia was seen as the security provider and China as providing the economic traction and ballast. What is important to note is that these countries have started looking at options beyond Russia and China. And, of course, a cognizance of this has to be taken by the respective governments. However, while the elites in these countries might not have much of a problem with the growing presence of Beijing, the expanding footprint of China is viewed with great concern and suspicion by the common people in these countries. China is trying to enhance its presence in the region and fill the vacuum created by the reduced sway of Russia. So I think it is quite clear that Russia’s influence has been declining in this region.Ĭhina has tried to take advantage of that, it organized on May 18 and 19 the China plus Central Asia Summit. This is the position of the other Central Asian countries. When Russia said last September that it was going to annex Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine, Kazakhstan had said that it would not support that decision. I don’t think there is any possibility of this virtual meeting making a breakthrough in that direction. Some progress has been made on some issues but the issue of standoff at Depsang and Demchok remain unresolved. India’s Raksha Mantri has also met the Chinese Defence Minister many times. India’s External Affairs Minister has met his counterpart several times. India and China have held regular and multiple rounds of talks, and China has been unwilling to relent as far as de-escalation and disengagement in some key areas is concerned. I don’t think there would be any correlation between this meeting and the G20 summit, as the latter is a separate platform that stands on its own merits.Īs far as the border standoff is concerned, I feel this meeting is unlikely to have any impact whatsoever, because it’s not as if the two sides have not been in contact with each other. Could this meeting have any bearing on either of these two things? Xi is likely to participate in this meeting, three years after the Galwan clash and months ahead of his visit to India for the G20 summit. In terms of the war, Ukraine has just started its counter-offensive, and any forward movement towards negotiations for peace or ceasefire is unlikely before the counter offensive has had its run. This time, since this is a virtual meet, there is no scope of a bilateral meeting on the sidelines and so there is very little possibility of the PM making a comment of this nature to Putin.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |