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India fights uphill battle to keep China out of SAARC
India’s rearguard action at a recent South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation summit in Nepal to foil China’s membership bid is poised to fail, reports Rahul Bedi
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (left) is trying to maintain Indian preeminence in SAARC despite calls for China to join from other countries’ leaders, such as Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
While India dominates the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC), it is now locked in a struggle with its neighbours to prevent China from playing a greater role in the eight-member grouping.
At SAARC’s biannual threeday summit in Kathmandu, which ended on 27 November, China’s elevation to full membership from SAARC observer status – a position it has held since 2005 – was backed by Bangladesh, Maldives, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
While all four sponsoring states receive generous Chinese economic, military, and infrastructure aid, the other three SAARC members – Afghanistan, Bhutan, and Nepal – also have relatively good bilateral relationships with China.
At the conference’s opening ceremony Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, delivered the opening salvo in the push to open the 29-year-old forum to China and South Korea.
“I wish to emphasise the importance of the role of SAARC observers,” he said. “SAARC can benefit from its interaction with them.”
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa followed suit, declaring that SAARC nations must engage with observers such as China for their individual “capacity-building” initiatives. His sentiments were echoed by Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen Gayoom and Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, however, strongly opposes the change, fearing it would diminish India’s preeminent role in SAARC and frustrate his hopes of using it as a counterweight to China’s growing strategic reach. After assuming office in May, Modi quickly paid official visits to Bhutan and Nepal and extended lines of credit to both countries.
“We need to first deepen our co-operation amongst SAARC [members] before we try and move it horizontally,” an Indian spokesman said in Kathmandu. “Observers are [a] peripheral [issue], and we will come to them at a later stage.”
China specialist Brigadier Arun Sahgal (rtd) said this standpoint constitutes “a wider economic, military, political, and diplomatic rivalry” between the two countries. “Besides, SAARC is one forum that India wholly dominates, and it does not want to cede that status to a more powerful China,” he said.
India also aims to use SAARC to counteract China’s recent USD40 billion Maritime Silk Route initiative and Beijing’s increasing influence in the Indian Ocean Region, sustained by a web of ports as well as economic, strategic, and defence partnerships.
“China is ready to elevate its relations with SAARC,” China’s representative, Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin, told the forum in Kathmandu. “China shares boundaries with five of the eight SAARC nations and our future destinies are interlinked. We should work for the common good.”
Liu also made an irresistible offer to resource-starved SAARC countries that India would struggle to match: investments of USD30 billion in the region over five years. Over the same period China plans to increase bilateral trade with SAARC states from USD90 billion to USD150 billion, he added.
He also offered 10,000 annual scholarships to China for South Asian students and 5,000 positions in skill development programmes.
The Chinese aid and economic packages are offered unconditionally, without any linkage to democratic reform, human rights, or transparency in governance. They also provide a stark contrast to a perception in SAARC states of New Delhi’s ‘bullying’ attitude and repeatedly broken promises while offering a welcome opportunity to play India off against China.
“Economic or military assistance or aid and infrastructure projects promised by India invariably take forever to come to fruition,” said a Sri Lankan diplomat, “but when, in frustration, we make overtures to China, India reacts instantly and delivers.”
Meanwhile, China is believed to have assured Delhi of its support for India’s membership of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) in exchange for facilitating Beijing’s entry into SAARC, although Indian officials deny such an arrangement exists.
India is one of five observers to the SCO: an economic, political, and military grouping founded in Shanghai in 2001 by China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
Rahul Bedi is a JDW Correspondent,
India’s rearguard action at a recent South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation summit in Nepal to foil China’s membership bid is poised to fail, reports Rahul Bedi
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (left) is trying to maintain Indian preeminence in SAARC despite calls for China to join from other countries’ leaders, such as Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
While India dominates the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC), it is now locked in a struggle with its neighbours to prevent China from playing a greater role in the eight-member grouping.
At SAARC’s biannual threeday summit in Kathmandu, which ended on 27 November, China’s elevation to full membership from SAARC observer status – a position it has held since 2005 – was backed by Bangladesh, Maldives, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
While all four sponsoring states receive generous Chinese economic, military, and infrastructure aid, the other three SAARC members – Afghanistan, Bhutan, and Nepal – also have relatively good bilateral relationships with China.
At the conference’s opening ceremony Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, delivered the opening salvo in the push to open the 29-year-old forum to China and South Korea.
“I wish to emphasise the importance of the role of SAARC observers,” he said. “SAARC can benefit from its interaction with them.”
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa followed suit, declaring that SAARC nations must engage with observers such as China for their individual “capacity-building” initiatives. His sentiments were echoed by Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen Gayoom and Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, however, strongly opposes the change, fearing it would diminish India’s preeminent role in SAARC and frustrate his hopes of using it as a counterweight to China’s growing strategic reach. After assuming office in May, Modi quickly paid official visits to Bhutan and Nepal and extended lines of credit to both countries.
“We need to first deepen our co-operation amongst SAARC [members] before we try and move it horizontally,” an Indian spokesman said in Kathmandu. “Observers are [a] peripheral [issue], and we will come to them at a later stage.”
China specialist Brigadier Arun Sahgal (rtd) said this standpoint constitutes “a wider economic, military, political, and diplomatic rivalry” between the two countries. “Besides, SAARC is one forum that India wholly dominates, and it does not want to cede that status to a more powerful China,” he said.
India also aims to use SAARC to counteract China’s recent USD40 billion Maritime Silk Route initiative and Beijing’s increasing influence in the Indian Ocean Region, sustained by a web of ports as well as economic, strategic, and defence partnerships.
“China is ready to elevate its relations with SAARC,” China’s representative, Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin, told the forum in Kathmandu. “China shares boundaries with five of the eight SAARC nations and our future destinies are interlinked. We should work for the common good.”
Liu also made an irresistible offer to resource-starved SAARC countries that India would struggle to match: investments of USD30 billion in the region over five years. Over the same period China plans to increase bilateral trade with SAARC states from USD90 billion to USD150 billion, he added.
He also offered 10,000 annual scholarships to China for South Asian students and 5,000 positions in skill development programmes.
The Chinese aid and economic packages are offered unconditionally, without any linkage to democratic reform, human rights, or transparency in governance. They also provide a stark contrast to a perception in SAARC states of New Delhi’s ‘bullying’ attitude and repeatedly broken promises while offering a welcome opportunity to play India off against China.
“Economic or military assistance or aid and infrastructure projects promised by India invariably take forever to come to fruition,” said a Sri Lankan diplomat, “but when, in frustration, we make overtures to China, India reacts instantly and delivers.”
Meanwhile, China is believed to have assured Delhi of its support for India’s membership of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) in exchange for facilitating Beijing’s entry into SAARC, although Indian officials deny such an arrangement exists.
India is one of five observers to the SCO: an economic, political, and military grouping founded in Shanghai in 2001 by China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
Rahul Bedi is a JDW Correspondent,
