‘We had a detailed discussion on improving the relation between our two countries, improving the relations at the border areas and also we covered a lot on the situation in south Asia, Asia-Pacific region. But on the whole, today’s visit by the Chinese defence minister was very fruitful; we had a very frank and heart-to-heart discussion on all the issues’, Antony said.
General Liang Guanglie said ‘We have also reached on an agreement or consensus on the exchange and cooperation between the two militaries in various fields, including the exchange of high level visits, the exchange of young officers and also the exchange of personnel training, inter-collegiate exchanges in non-traditional security fields including cooperation between the two navies and maritime security cooperation’.
This was the first visit to India by a Chinese defence minister in eight years. In the run upto the visit, he spoke highly of the cooperation between the PLA Navy and the Indian Navy in coordinating anti-piracy escort missions in the Indian Ocean. ‘It was the first time the PLA Navy conducted such maritime security cooperation with any foreign country’, he told the Hindu in an interview. He rejected reports about the presence of Chinese army in POK as “totally groundless.”
“As Minister of National Defence of China, I’d like to take this opportunity to clarify to you once again: the PLA has never deployed a single soldier in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir,” General Liang (71) told the daily, adding that China firmly supported India and Pakistan to resolve their disputes.
While this is an interesting assertion, equally interesting is another observation; General Liang who is a member of the powerful Central Military Commission, said he stands for “fostering a closer military-to-military relationship (between China and India)” and to making defence ties “a positive factor in our state-to-state relations.”
India has reason to hear these assertions without being swayed away.
New Delhi is not impressed by Chinese construction activity in POK. The infrastructure projects, which include road building, are no doubt civilian, but could be put to military use, facilitating the movement of troops to the border with India. Some estimates put the number of Chinese personnel in PoK at 4000 which is less than the number (between 7000 and 11000 of PLA soldiers) mentioned by Selig Harrison in the International Herald Tribune (26 August 2010).
The government has conveyed ‘its concerns to China about their activities in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and asked them to cease such activities’, Antony told the Lok Sabha on Sept 3.
Significantly, Yang Jinshan, commander of the Tibet military district, is a part of 23-member General Liang’s delegation. There is reason therefore to subscribe to the view from Beijing that the visit is a part of PLA’s ‘military diplomacy’ to promote ‘mutual trust and cooperation between the two militaries and exchanges between the two militaries’.
Liang- Antony talks have paved the way for resumption of joint military exercises, “at the earliest.” It is too early to comment on the scope and utility of these exercises. Pertinent to note is the fact that these exercises had commenced in 2007 but were suspended three years later after a series of disputes, particularly over China’s denial of visas to Indian delegates from J&K and Arunachal Pradesh.
The two defence ministers agreed to strengthen cooperation between border troops, “so as to enhance and maintain peace and tranquillity in the India-China border areas.” There is no mention of POK in the joint statement but it appears to have figured along with the American plans to shift a major portion of its Navy to the Asia Pacific region.
For India, Pakistan is a factor in its relations with China. Not only because of the border issue but because of the fact that Chinese are the primary supplier of nuclear reactors and other war heads. There is the additional angle of proxy war and export of Islamist terrorism. Yet, India will not make Pakistan a reference point in the Sino-Indian ties.
For China, the United States has become a factor in its relations with India and other countries since Washington is rebalancing and recalibrating its policy for Asia and South-east Asia. Chinese defence minister arrived in India after a visit to Sri Lanka where it has one of its ‘pearls at Hambantota’. Though these pearls appeared at one time as encircling the Indian Ocean region, they are dwarfed by what the Chinese see as the American encirclement of its waters.
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who was in Delhi in June, had said they did not need any additional bases in the Asia Pacific where they plan to keep six aircraft carriers. “We would continue to operate from whatever facilities we have (in the region),” he said. He added that the US considers India to be the ‘lynch-pin’ of this new US strategy.
Put differently, India matters for both the Chinese and the Americans alike and both may like to weigh India’s role – both potential and real- in the South China Sea, where the waters are becoming warm even as winter is round the corner. On its part, India’s primary interest will remain the Indian Ocean which is its backyard. And sphere of influence as well. This interest by itself is a message to China.
