Sino-Indian Relations: Revision and Prospects

2017 was a tenacious year for Indo-Chinese relations.

In recent years, increasing competition in terms of everything has made these neighbors fierce rivals. The peak of the tension we saw was the rise of border conflict near Doklam.  Beijing and New Delhi reached at a rock bottom in their bilateral terms. The strategic mistrust and economic clashes have worked as a fuel making these states no more trustworthy for each other. The relations were at a crossroad which could have turned that in wrong direction. Hence, the need of time is that these two nations must rethink about their relations in 2018.

 

The bilateral trade between both of the nations was over 100 Billion US dollars last year

The tragedy at Doklam was the worst that caused the terms to convert into rigid form. China threatened India that it may use the force to make India retreat from its stance. Correspondingly, India boycotted the BRI held in Beijing in May 2017, to register its fret.  Additionally, India has a clear stance over China’s Road and Belt initiative. Similarly, India’s decision to join the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue with US, Japan, Australia with a naval component contrived China to think about bilateral terms. These three episodes made the relations between nations quite serious. Al though, none of the incidents caused a heavy damage but these events surely had manifested the grounds of dispute.

The question is how these states can feed their relations to be at the best?

Firstly, the states need to ensure trust through defense cooperation. Bilateral defense treaties may provide these countries with best of output. Furthermore, the visits paid by officials of both states in recent years have built the mutual trust and understanding resulted in a prosperous matter. Additionally, sides need to provide sound foundation and institutional frame work in order to achieve further developments in defense production and cooperation. Not to forget, the nations share a long border, due to which peace is the key focus and should be. Therefore, defense cooperation can undeniably melt the ice between the relations of these two giants.

Secondly, the primal tension of conflict is of the boundary. China and India should work to eject this issue by proactive manner. Special representative can solve the issue or it may be handled by a transparent authority. An early solution of this dispute will advance the basic interest and therefore, these two nations must join hands and do not let this dispute affect the positive developments of their bilateral relations.

Thirdly, these two power houses of Asia touch the figure of 100 Billion US Dollars in bilateral trade. Likewise, the economies of these two nations depend on each other. China’s one belt, one road project is extended up to the Europe but its neighbor India is denying to take part in it. The need of hour is to involve India in the economic affairs. Consequently, the economic dependence will trim the chances of conflict. As we can borrow from the history, two trading partners have never fought each other.

Finally, the countries need to appreciate each other’s role and value at international stages. Additionally, the regular exchange of views and ideas will provide a handsome contribution. Eventually, this will encourage towards a peaceful resolution of conflicts. Security, maritime, border or terrorism issues can be resolved by not to discourage or taunt each other’s view or stance at any level.

Final Analysis

China-India relations are yet not at their best. These two countries are not indulged to trust each other. The bilateral trade could be increased up to a high level. The nations are ignorant of each other’s potential despite the fact that they can profit from each other’s experience. Additionally, their size, capacity and proximity make it inevitable that they can compete, cooperate and share economically, culturally and socially. The need of the hour is that both of the power houses have to get acquisition from wealth, talent and possibilities. To sum up, real friendship between them seems not possible yet but there are some concerns regarding which the region must have to be optimist about.