'Therefore, Beijing comes to wrong conclusions.'
Key Points
- 'India-China relations went backward significantly [after Galwan]. While we must continue to exercise caution, we should also prepare ourselves for any eventuality.'
- 'India handled the Eastern Ladakh move by China very well.'
- 'We must expand our relations with middle powers like Japan, the European Union, Canada and Australia.'
"China needs to judge the relationship with India on its own steam and not through the lens of its own relations with the US or through India's relations with the US.
"If Beijing were to do so, she would see India differently and deal with this important relationship differently," says Ambassador Gautam Bambawale, India's former envoy to China who has served 15 years over four postings in China.
"We need to keep our powder dry. Simultaneously, we need to grow India's economy faster at 8 or 9 per cent per annum, so that we build up more muscle," Ambassador Bambawale tells Rediff's Archana Masih in the concluding part of a must-read interview.
What have been your primary takeaways from the Xi-Modi interactions and your interpretation of the subsequent read outs from both countries about the future of the relationship?
First, let me point out that the hard work was done before the Xi-Modi meeting not merely by the SRs (Special Representatives), but also the EAMs (external affairs ministers) and at lower levels. No specific outcomes were expected from the leaders' meeting.
However, they would have provided some guidance or strategic direction to their respective teams of how to move the relationship ahead. Both governments will now work on this guidance and some of the results will become apparent in the coming weeks and months.
I expect that the work of repairing and rebuilding the relationship will continue forward through greater people-to-people exchanges, easier visa facilitation, more business people being able to visit the other country, and with some of the earlier government dialogue mechanisms being put back together.
As I said earlier, this will be a slow, hard process. There will not be too many spectacular breakthroughs.
One of the points Xi put forward was to 'remove interference through political wisdom based on mutual respect and mutual understanding. Be committed to bilateral relations and the boundary question advancing on twin tracks and mutually promoting each other, and safeguard peace and tranquillity in the border areas'.
Is China here suggesting that India-US relations are impacting India-China bilateral relations, including on the boundary question?
Unfortunately, China has always viewed its relations with India through the prism of the United States. It continues to do so. Therefore, Beijing comes to wrong conclusions.
China needs to judge the relationship with India on its own steam and not through the lens of its own relations with the US or through India's relations with the US.
If Beijing were to do so, she would see India differently and deal with this important relationship differently.
In an interview to Rediff in 2024 you had said that you felt that 'by the time President Xi Jinping came for the Chennai summit [2019], he had already instructed his army to undertake the action in Galwan in the summer of 2020.'
Do you think Xi would or could repeat similar action? What should India be careful about this time around?
In my view, India handled the Eastern Ladakh move by China very well. China may not have achieved too many of its objectives.
One thing is certain -- India-China relations went backward significantly. While we must continue to exercise caution, we should also prepare ourselves for any eventuality.
We need to keep our powder dry. Simultaneously, we need to grow India's economy faster at 8 or 9 per cent per annum, so that we build up more muscle.
We must expand our relations with middle powers like Japan, the European Union, Canada and Australia. We are already on this path, but must forge ahead quickly.
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff
