AMN / WEB DESK
China needs to look at India’s strategies from the lens of India’s own interests rather than China’s relations with other global or regional players, particularly the United States. At the 10th World Peace Forum concluded on Tuesday in Beijing, India’s former Foreign Secretary and former National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon said that today some Chinese look at India through the prism of China’s relation with the US rather than that of India’s pursuit of its own interests.
His remarks was supported by leading Chinese experts. Participating virtually in a panel discussion on ‘The US Indo-Pacific Strategy and its implications on Regional Security’, Mr. Menon said, this sort of thinking actually contributes to bringing about a polarized situation in Asia as the US-China contention is being played out in entire Asia, in the seas near China and in the Indo-pacific causing larger security dilemma and great power contention. The session was attended by the experts from China, Australia, Singapore and other ASEAN countries.
Mr. Menon, one of the finest Indian diplomat and India’s former Ambassador to China between 2000-2003 said, we have an Asia today full of revisionist powers who display the classic features of a series of security dilemmas whether it is China and US, China and Japan and so on. “Today the powers in Asia all think that they are reacting defensively to the actions of others. This would be an explosive recipe for disaster if it were not ameliorated by the fact that the same powers are dependent upon each other for their continued prosperity and by extension even for their internal stability which is not at its best after years of economic slowdown and pandemic and other stresses, in fact what we now see across the region is a re-negotiation of social and political contract in all the major Asian and world powers,” he said in his widely appreciated remarks.
Chen Dong Qiao, a senior expert at Shanghai Institute of International Studies (SIIS) fully echoed Mr. Menon’s view that China’s relations with India should not be seen with a lens of China-US relations. He said, today, Asian way, or ASEAN way, or SCO way based on empathy, trust building, respect for diverse cultures and consultation on equal footing is the way forward.
China must consider the feelings of neighboring countries who joined IPEF
As experts and the audience discussed the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) and its utility in the presence of various other economic frameworks like RCEP, CPTPP in the Indo-Pacific region, Mr. Menon said IPEF is not a Free Trade Area (FTA), it is a framework within which to discuss larger economic issues. There is space for something which is broader than a Free trade agreement/arrangement because today there are several competing ideas of rules and norms pertaining to economic activities in the region. There is a room for discussion around this. He said, IPEF is like the OECD which began as a platform to actually discuss the policies and larger economic issues, not as an FTA.
Regarding the IPEF, Long Yongtu, China’s former vice-commerce minister has said at the annual forum in Beijing organized by an influential thinktank Centre for China and Globalisation (CCG) late last month that China should take an objective and cautious attitude towards US President Joe Biden’s Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF). The IPEF, joined by 14 countries including India (but not China) so far seeks to establish rules covering areas from data protection to carbon emissions and accounting for 40 per cent of the world’s gross domestic product.
“The cautious attitude towards IPEF includes considerations not only from the standpoint of the United States, but also the situation among other founding members. We should make them feel at ease,” Mr. Yongtu said. “When dealing with multilateral issues, China must consider the feelings of neighbouring countries,” Yu Hongjun, an expert at CCG and former deputy minister of the Communist Party’s International Department said. Other experts said studying the IPEF will help China take part in regional economic development, especially involving the US. Beijing must ‘consider’ neighbouring nations who have signed onto the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, they said.
Battle of ‘professed strategies’ in Indo-Pacific
Talking about an increasingly polarized and militarized Indo Pacific region as visible in the territorial standoffs in South Asia and East China Sea and South China Sea, Mr. Menon said we now see a battle of strategies or a battle of ‘professed strategies’ between what US presents its Indo-Pacific strategy, what China offers as its ‘Global Security Initiative’ and several other proposals for Asian security. All contain unexceptionable sentiments like the idea of mutual respect, the core interest, indivisible security, assurance of freedom of navigation, upholding territorial integrity and sovereignty, providing global public goods, respecting international law. He cautioned that these are normative or professed strategies, but actions rather than words matter in these.
“Past and present experience has made us cynical about these professions. How countries in the region actually see the normative and well-honed professions in these strategies is clear from their actions in last decade,” he said without mentioning any particular conflict.
Mr. Menon mentioned about further nuclearization of Northeast Asia and increasing contention in maritime Asia. He said, the Indo-Pacific is no exception to the global phenomenon where politics is now in command, not market or economic calculations or welfare. Today’s geopolitics prevents us from dealing with the real issues facing us – the developing countries debt crisis, the development deficit, climate change and shrinking prospects for the global economy. The result of these zero-sum political approaches to issues of peace and prosperity is creating an increasing likelihood of conflict in an uncertain future.