<![CDATA[New Delhi and Beijing cannot let differences turn into disputes: India's ambassador to China]>
India and China must actively manage their differences so they do not get in the way of the Asian superpowers working together for global stability, India's top diplomat in China said on Friday.
To emphasise his point, Ambassador Vikram Misri listed eight long-standing and new bilateral issues that required attention, including India's almost US$60 billion trade deficit with China, cooperation on counterterrorism and a peaceful resolution to their border dispute.
"This trade imbalance is not economically sustainable in the long run," said Misri at an Asia Society event in Hong Kong. "It is in our mutual interest to find workable solutions before the markets react in unpredictable ways and the issue becomes politically sensitive."
Frosty ties between two of the world's largest economies have thawed in the past year following a 73-day military stand-off in the Himalayas in 2017, with Beijing seeking to forge closer ties with New Delhi amid its ongoing trade and tech war with the United States.
In May, Beijing dropped its long-held objections towards United Nations sanctions on Masood Azhar, the founder and leader of terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed, which was behind the suicide bombing of Indian soldiers that brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war earlier this year.
Analysts said this would pave the way for a better relationship between India and China.
Misri said both countries enjoyed a "full-spectrum relationship" of economic, commercial and people-to-people ties, and this was reinforced by the "strong personal bond" Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping had, despite the "elements of competition".
The leaders of the two nations met four times last year and twice in 2019, with Xi set to visit India later this year. Both men share an understanding that "our rise can be mutually reinforcing" and a mutual interest in "preventing differences from turning into disputes", the ambassador added.
But while Misri, a career diplomat posted to Beijing at the start of this year, stressed that differences would not derail ties, he made no bones about the thorny issues both sides are grappling with.
Both nations are still engaged in the second of a three-stage process to settle their border dispute " the world's largest in terms of area, he said.
The first stage was an agreement on the political parameters for a boundary settlement in 2005. The current stage involves agreeing on a framework for a boundary settlement, which Misri said would be translated "into a delineated and demarcated boundary" in the final stage.
Communication over water and shared rivers has also been a key area of cooperation for the two nations.
Indian ambassador to China Vikram Misri speaking at the Asia Society in Hong Kong. Photo: Asia Society alt=Indian ambassador to China Vikram Misri speaking at the Asia Society in Hong Kong. Photo: Asia Society
They have established channels for information sharing on cross-frontier rivers, which last year enabled the Chinese side to warn the relevant Indian authorities of a landslide which would send a large amount of water to India. While in this instance the two sides were able to avert a loss of life, they can do more to broaden cooperation, Misri said.
He alluded to how China and India are vying for influence in the Indian Ocean, saying it was an area where both had "contiguous zones of maritime interest".
The two sides need to work together to preserve peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region " which stretches from the Indian Ocean to the central Pacific Ocean " and ensure transparent economic and commercial cooperation, infrastructure and connectivity, he said.
Misri, who served as the private secretary to Modi as well as former prime ministers Manmohan Singh and I.K. Gujral, said there were three areas of mutual interest for India and China.
Besides a "peaceful periphery", they should cooperate to ensure there are open international systems regarding trade and technology, and that global governance is reformed so the voices of nations such as theirs can be heard.
The Russia-India-China trilateral meeting on the sidelines of last month's G20 summit in Osaka, where leaders discussed issues ranging from energy security to climate change, was an opportunity to discuss alternative viewpoints on changing international issues.
This was crucial amid the economic instability caused by US-China trade tensions, that were causing "generalised damage" to the global economy, Misri said.
In the question and answer session with the event's 112 attendees, Misri was asked if India was feeling the pressure to choose in the face of US efforts to get its allies to reconsider using or ban Chinese tech firm Huawei from their superfast 5G networks.
Washington says Huawei equipment could be used by Beijing for spying and the US Commerce Department has placed the company on its entity list, effectively banning US companies from selling equipment and components to it.
When US President Donald Trump and Xi met at the G20 summit, Trump announced American companies could resume sales to Huawei as long as the products involved did not threaten national security.
Misri referred to this, and said: "Let's see how it shapes up."
He added the issue was far from decided for India as it had only achieved 4G connectivity recently and was not yet ready to build out its 5G infrastructure.
Still, he said, "there's no question on taking sides over this". "Our leadership is very clear that any decision taken over this will only be taken in our national interest."
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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Copyright (c) 2019. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
