Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar on Wednesday criticised China for joining the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) without keeping in mind Indian sensitivities and respecting its sovereignty. He said just the way Beijing is highly sensitive on matters concerning to its sovereignty, India expects it to respect others sovereignty too.
The CPEC passes through Gilgit-Baltistan in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), an area India claims to be its own. The Indian Government has registered several protests with China over its participation in the CPEC.
“China is a country which is very sensitive on matters concerning its sovereignty. So we would expect that they would have some understanding of other people’s sensitivity to their sovereignty. CPEC passes through a territory that we see as ours. Surely, people will understand what Indian reaction is. There needs to be some reflection, and I am sorry to say we haven’t seen signs of that,” Jaishankar said while speaking at the annual Raisina Dialogue.
The Foreign Secretary’s strong statement came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while speaking at the same platform, urged China to respect sovereignty of countries, avoid differences and discord and show sensitivity and respect for each other’s core concerns and interests.
“What we are trying to do is to convince China that our rise is not harmful to China’s rise just as China’s rise is not harmful to us,” the FS said.
India and China have differences on several issues — including sanctions on Pakistan-based terrorists, Nuclear Suppliers Group membership and CPEC.
“With China, the overall broadening of ties, especially in business and people-to-people contacts, has been overshadowed by differences on certain political issues. But it is important for the two countries not to lose sight of the strategic nature of their engagement, or falter in their conviction that their rise can be mutually supportive. We will continue to invest more energy into this account in 2017,” Jaishankar said.
On the South China Sea dispute, the Foreign Secretary said India’s position was consistent with the international law and its overall stand on it in sync with the international community.
Talking about terrorism, the FS indicated world’s attitude towards India changed after 2016 when it conducted surgical strikes. “Terror is a snake that bites the hand that feeds it” he said while adding ways to deal with the threat of terrorism was a major focus of India’s diplomacy today.
Terming terrorism the most pervasive and serious challenge to international security, the FS said developing a serious global response was of the highest priority, yet hard to do due to lack of coherence in dealing with the menace globally.
The FS criticised Pakistan for blocking SAARC, saying the regional grouping has become ineffective due to insecurity of one member. “We hoped to partially remedy this (Pakistan’s obstruction) through the BBIN (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal) sub-regional grouping. It is also our expectation that the current level of enthusiasm among members of BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) can be channelled towards more far-reaching initiatives,” he said.
Russia, the United States of America and Japan too figured prominently in Jaishankar’s speech. Referring to Donald Trump’s election, the FS said relations between the US and Russia could undergo a major transformation not seen since 1945 and that its impact was hard to predict. In this context, he added India’s relations with both the US and Russia were on an upswing and an improvement in US-Russia ties was not against Indian interests.