Wen’s visit,the inside story: Nothing gained,nothing given

a. Despite repeated requests,New Delhi made it clear that it would have no reference of the regional trade agreement (RTA) with Beijing in the joint statement and will not enter into any negotiation till such time the bilateral trade balance is corrected. When India decided to go for RTA with China in 2005 under pressure from the South Block,the total bilateral trade was $19 billion. Today,the trade deficit on Indian side is $19 billion alone as the bilateral trade will touch $60 billion at the end of this fiscal.

b. New Delhi decided to ditch any references to defence exchanges in the joint statement as it made it clear that it was Chinese unilateral action of giving a stapled visa to the Indian Northern Army Commander Lt General B S Jaswal which triggered off the deep freeze in bilateral relationship. It was made clear that till such time the policy of stapled visa to Jammu and Kashmir residents including Army officers posted in the state was not reversed,the defence relationship would be in the cold.

c. As Wen Jiabao refused to commit himself to addressing any Indian concern over stapled visas,Chinese projects in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and terrorist groups like Lashkar-e-Toiba targetting India,New Delhi for the first time did not reiterate the One China policy. In fact,External Affairs Minister S M Krishna had sounded off his Chinese counterpart in Wuhan on November 15,2010 that Kashmir was to India just as Tibet was to China.

So behind the optics of a bilateral relationship with a great future,both sides held their ground with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh uncharacteristically doing some plainspeak to Wen Jiabao during the official arrangements. It was Manmohan Singh – who was briefed by Indian Ambassador to China S Jaishanker last Sunday on the visit — who raised the issues of Chinese projects in PoK,the Chinese dam on River Brahmaputra and stapled visa both in front of the official delegations and in private conversations.

Wen,according to sources,gave elliptical answers to both questions by saying that China was neutral to India and Pakistan’s issue on Kashmir and that Beijing was conscious to its international commitments on building an upstream project on the river. The Indian reply to Chinese position of neutrality was that if Beijing has nothing to do with Kashmir then why was it giving stapled visa to citizens from the state. The fact is that China started issuing stapled visas in 2008 but it was only in 2009 that New Delhi decided to take up the issue.

The other issue on which Wen Jiabao expected bilateral movement was an announcement on the beginning of negotiations on RTA between the two countries.

However,the Indian Commerce Ministry stood its ground and said that no headway in negotiations was possible till the trade imbalance was rectified. It was only towards the end of his visit that the Chinese Premier realised that the bilateral relationship between the two Asian giants was a long haul and this time Beijing would have to blink first.