Wang Yi's India visit to bring in vernal breeze in bilateral ties

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Editor's note: Manisha Chakraborty is a freelance Indian journalist. The article reflects the author's opinion, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

2018 is going down in history books as being exceptionally fruitful for India-China ties with four meetings between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping this year including a series of bilateral events that have brought Asia's two biggest neighbors closer.

It is obvious that both countries are apparently taking a pragmatic approach to their relationship after last year's long-standing border standoff in Doklam. Having drawn lessons from the standoff, the leaders of the two countries are making continuing efforts at guiding bilateral ties towards normalcy.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 Leaders' Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, November 30, 2018. /VCG Photo

In the favorable backdrop of the relationship between the two countries, when some irritants that have strained the bilateral ties have been gradually melting with the personal confabulations between President Xi and Prime Minister Modi during their informal meeting in Wuhan in April, Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councilor Wang Yi will be paying an official visit to India from December 21 to 24 at the invitation of Indian Foreign Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

Ahead of his India visit, while addressing at the opening of symposium on the International Situation and China's Foreign Relations in 2018 in Beijing on December 11, Wang elucidated upon China-India relations which have exhibited both hope and confidence.

Referring to the Wuhan "heart-to-heart summit," he remarked that President Xi emphasized that the Chinese "dragon" and the Indian "elephant" should join each other in a duet, not a duel. And Prime Minister Modi responded by saying that when India and China work together, one plus one is not two, but 11. No doubt, the Chinese foreign minister signaled that both countries should aspire to become friends for generations with a mutual will.

Indeed, when protectionism and polarization trumps the world, India-China relations are a force of stability. More pragmatic and healthy Sino-Indian relations matter in the light of geopolitical and military tensions between the two largest Asian countries.

As such, it can be hoped that in the new era the two countries should explore new ideas to live side-by-side for win-win outcomes, bringing a wasteful rivalry to an end to the progress and prosperity of Asia and the world beyond.

Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councilor Wang Yi attends the G20 Leaders' Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, November 30, 2018. /VCG Photo

Wang's visit holds special significance as he will co-chair the first meeting of the newly constituted India-China High Level Mechanism on "Cultural and People-to-People Exchanges" with his Indian counterpart on December 21 in New Delhi.

The meeting is seen as a confidence building measure between the two Asian giants through enhanced exchanges in areas such as tourism, art, films, media, culture, sports and academic and youth exchanges.

Hopes have also surfaced that India will make positive announcements on China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) during Wang's tete-a-tete with his Swaraj and PM Modi since the agenda of the meeting is focused on "People-to-People Exchanges" which is one of the five factors of connectivity under the BRI.

It is hoped that progress could be made on developing the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar-Economic Corridor.

Here, it is worth mentioning that, in addition to the Modi-Xi G20 parleys in Buenos Aires on November 30, a number of top ministerial-level meetings have already taken place for a healthy and stable development of the bilateral relations this year.

The visit by China's trade minister Zhong Shan to Indian capital in March signaled the upswing in India-China trade relations, raising hopes of a united front against "America First" protectionism.

This visit was followed by the visits of foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and defense minister Nirmala Sitharaman to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Beijing in April which paved the way for Modi's attendance to the SCO Leaders' Summit in June in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province.

Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj (L) shakes hands with Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councilor Wang Yi (R) at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China, April 24, 2018. ‍/VCG Photo

A number of feel-good measures have already emerged ahead of Wang's visit to India. The 21st border affairs meeting between Wang and Indian national security adviser Ajit Doval was concluded on November 24 in Chengdu, the capital city of southwest China's Sichuan Province, with a positive consensus on "moving negotiations forward and preserving regional peace and stability."

Furthermore, leaving behind the Doklam episode, the seventh edition of joint India-China Military Drill under the code name of "Hand-in-Hand 2018" is underway from December 11 to 23 in Chengdu with an aim to strengthen military capabilities in responding to terrorism. Surely the two-week long joint military exercises will lend credence to the newfound enthusiasm of bilateral ties

It is in this favorable backdrop Indian analysts also expect that several hotspot issues affecting bilateral ties are likely to be discussed during Wang's visit, specifically, the move by China to block India's membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, and vetoing India's repeated efforts to add the head of Jaish-e-Mohammad, Masood Azhar, to the UN Security Council sanctions list. Experts believe that China must address these longstanding issues of concern.

There is no denying that the relationship between India and China is one of the most important ones in the world today. The two countries represent a third of humanity and almost a fifth of the global economy. The leadership of both countries should put aside their disputes and instead focus on creating a better future for the 2.6 billion people residing on either side of the Himalayas.

(Cover: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the opening day of G20 Leaders' Summit 2018 at Costa Salguero in Buenos Aires, Argentina, November 30, 2018. /VCG Photo)

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