Saturday, July 31, 2004

India-China parleys

These are going on at the moment, but I believe they are meaningless. Here are two takes on the matter, one from Indian strategic affairs expert Brahma Chellaney, and the other from the Economist magazine. Brahma has a lot more credibility, in my opinion. The Economist stringer appears to be merely regurgitating conventional wisdom. Besides, NATO has always leaned towards China (and any other dictatorship), and the Economist is pretty much the Voice of NATO.

The first article is at: http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/5922_914013,0015002200000057.htm

Forever Shanghaied: Brahma Chellaney

The second article is premium content at the Economist. I post only the first paragraph below:

Vaulting the Himalayas
Jul 29th 2004 DELHI
From The Economist print edition

The principle of peaceful coexistence: keep talking as long as possible

AMONG the mementoes Natwar Singh, India's foreign minister, showsvisitors is a photograph taken in Beijing in 1957. It captures him asa young diplomat, alongside Mao Zedong and other Chinese leaders. Itis a souvenir of a lost era of third-world solidarity, when India andChina devised and embraced their "five principles of peacefulcoexistence", whose 50th anniversary was celebrated in June. In 1962they flouted them all by fighting a brief, bloody border war. Chinarouted India, which has sulked ever since. Relations may now be on thepoint of recovery, though the "brotherhood" the giant Asian neighboursasserted in the 1950s remains a distant memory.

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