The Rediff Special / T Karki Hussain

By combining with India's neighbours, China has strengthened its claim to a legitimate engagement in South Asia

In South Asia where China continued to play partisan politics against Indian interests and waged a protracted cold war with New Delhi, the regional cold war has finally come to an end. Last September, the two governments signed a significant accord on peace and tranquillity on the Line of Actual Control, and agreed to institutionalise the existing confidence-building measures to maintain the status quo on the border till a mutually satisfactory solution comes through.

All through the period stretching from the cropping up of Sino-Indian differences and their long phase of apparent intractability the Soviet Union remained the most intrusive variable of all. The Chinese were piqued by Soviet neutrality in the 1950s when they were still Soviet allies. Later, they saw Indo-Soviet relations evolve into a strategic understanding to neutralise and counter them in the region.

By the mid-1980s though, this proximity had become notional. Corresponding to the thawing of relations, China's subsequent regional policy has shed much of its anti-Indian orientation which had motivated it to construct a strategic relationship with Pakistan, besides encouraging other neighbours against New Delhi. The latter has always aspired to a leading role beyond the confines of South Asia, which it finds impossible to realise because of China's effective challenges both within and beyond South Asia.

By combining with India's neighbours, China has come to be seen as a counterweight to India and has strengthened its claim to a legitimate engagement in South Asia affairs.

On the other hand, India has not been able to advance its influence in Southeast Asia despite the fact that historically Indian culture, values and institutions have permeated the region and its statesmen have been held in great respect. In the recent past, its policy of nonalignment has also been favourably received.

Despite some reservations regarding security and defence linkages withe the West, India had maintained friendly relations with all the regional states and, at the formation of ASEAN, supported the idea of regional grouping for promoting socio-economic cohesion. By contrast, the Chinese characterised the ASEAN leaders as agents of American imperialism.

However, Vietnam's isolation following the developments of 1978 and 1979 ( a treaty with Soviet Union with explicit defence connotations, its military invasion of Cambodia, its forcible overthrow and installation of a government under Hanoi's auspices and the continued presence of its military forces to prevent the collapse of its protege) adversely affected India's image in the region.

Indian sympathy for the Vietnamese national struggle and subsequent support of is policies coupled with the Soviet link has underlined a shared perspective to some extent. While the proximity factor had complicated matters somewhat, it was recognising the Vietnamese-installed government that India put itself in a compromising position and was criticised for taking a lenient view of Vietnam's violation of Khmer sovereignty.

Paradoxically, the same developments helped China entrench itself in the region. Its recent shift of strategy from geopolitics to economic diplomacy has further broadened its operational base. Chinese policy is paying off. It is a dialogue partner of ASEAN and is being invited to join the various newly mushrooming groupings meant for accelerating economic interaction between East and Southeast Asia.

China is also being included in the post-ministerial talks on regional security. India has yet to be invited to join the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation Forum and remains only a 'sectoral partner' with ASEAN. The status quo may change in India's favour as the area of co-operation gets enlarged and many hitherto unexplored avenues become the focus of attention.

Here again, one may anticipate that with the disappearance of the Soviet irritant and China's normalisation with Vietnam and India, the dynamic economic players which include the overseas Chinese community would look forward to India as an equally attractive proposition.

Excerpted from India and Southeast Asia edited by Baladas Ghoshal, Konarak, 1996, Rs 150, with the publisher's permission. Readers may direct inquiries about the book to Mr K P R Nair, Konarak Publishers, A-149, Main Vikas Marg, Delhi 11 00 92.