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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/16/w...ule=Recommendation&src=rechp&WT.nav=RecEngine
HONG KONG — India’s prime minister,Narendra Modi, told China’s leaders on Friday that it was up to them to rethink policies that he said had hindered cooperation between the Asian giants.
Mr. Modi made the comments to reporters in Beijing after meeting with China’s premier, Li Keqiang, and unveiling 24 agreements that both men said would help improve relations. But Mr. Modi added a proviso: that the Chinese government should consider India’s grievances.
“We covered all issues, including those that trouble smooth development of our relations,” Mr. Modi said of his talks with Mr. Li and, on Thursday, with China’s president, Xi Jinping.
The sources of contention have included long-running border disputes, a heavy trade imbalance in China’s favor and India’s wariness toward China’s partnership with Pakistan, India’s rival.
“I stressed the need for China to reconsider its approach on some of the issues that hold us back from realizing the full potential of our partnership,” Mr. Modi said in remarks broadcast live on Indian television. “I suggested that China should take a strategic and long-term view of our relations.”
Photo
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, left, and Premier Li Keqiang of China during a signing ceremony in Beijing on Friday. CreditGreg Baker/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
He added, “I found the Chinese leadership responsive.”
Mr. Modi’s caveat departed from the mild, oblique language that most Asian leaders use in public after meeting with leaders in Beijing, and it reflected the difficult balance he sought.
He has courted Chinese business and investment to shore up India’s economy and has stressed that he wants to deepen ties. Indian officials said there had been progress on several nagging issues, including confidence-building protocols at the countries’ disputed border and a high-level task force aimed at expanding trade.
But Mr. Modi has also promoted himself as a vigorous defender of Indian security interests and international standing.
“For him to say we hope the Chinese will reconsider their approach — it’s very politely put, and he added that he saw sensitivity to India’s concerns,” said Siddharth Varadarajan, an editor of The Wire, an Indian news website. “But that’s quite a strong way to put it.”
For now, both governments appear committed to containing their disagreements and building stronger economic ties. China’s ambassador to New Delhi, Le Yucheng, had said the deals signed during Mr. Modi’s visit could be worth $10 billion. Mr. Li, China’s premier, mostly avoided delicate policy areas in his comments to reporters, and he praised Mr. Modi’s efforts to reinvigorate the Indian economy and to improve relations with China.
“It’s clear that the Chinese government is going out of its way to demonstrate that it takes India and Narendra Modi in particular seriously,” said Peter Martin, an associate director in the New Delhi office of APCO Worldwide, a consultancy. “The challenge, of course, is making such rhetoric seem credible when the border dispute dominates public debate, especially in India.”
One indicator of good will was the absence of confrontation on the countries’ 2,200-mile border, much of it poorly defined and contested. Last September, as Mr. Modi and Mr. Xi entered their first meeting, Indian soldiers faced off against Chinese troops in the Himalayas.
On Friday, Mr. Modi said India wanted closer ties with China, including more investment, greater access to its markets and a shared commitment to ensure that their disagreements remained in check.
In the afternoon, addressing students at Tsinghua University, he presented a broad argument for cooperation: Both China and India face extremist terrorism whose “source is in the same region,” and uncertainty about energy supplies. He noted that the countries depend on the same sea lanes for international commerce, a point of sensitivity for China, which fears losing sea access for fuel imports in the event of hardening conflict with the United States or its allies.
India and China remain sensitive to any perceived challenges to territorial claims and affronts to national pride. Before Mr. Modi’s visit, for example, Indian news outlets seized on a commentary in a popular Chinese tabloid, Global Times, that accused Mr. Modi of “playing little tricks over border disputes and security issues.”
Many Chinese, in turn, remain wary and disdainful of India.
Mr. Modi “has deliberately looked for problems so that during negotiations with Chinese leaders he has more chips to bargain with,” Hu Zhiyong, the author of the Global Times commentary, said in a phone interview from Boston, where he is a visiting scholar. “We can’t have any hopes or expectations that Modi will make even the slightest concessions in negotiations with Chinese leaders on political and security matters.”
India has remained reticent on one of Mr. Xi’s central initiatives, a network of roads, railways and ports intended to link China to the rest of Asia and to Europe, known as One Belt, One Road. On Friday, India’s foreign secretary, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, called the plan “a Chinese initiative” and said Beijing had not approached India’s leaders about participating. “We are open to discussing this with the Chinese whenever they want to,” he said.
During the address at Tsinghua University, Mr. Modi announced that a simplified online visa protocol would be expanded to include Chinese tourists. It had been uncertain whether China would be included because of lingering wariness within India’s security agencies.
The two dozen agreements signed as Mr. Modi and Mr. Li looked on mostly involved strengthening government cooperation in areas including railways, mining and tourism. Mr. Jaishankar said commercial agreements would be unveiled on Saturday in Shanghai, where Mr. Modi will attend a business forum. “We can see more visible enthusiasm among Chinese businesses to invest in India,” Mr. Jaishankar said.
HONG KONG — India’s prime minister,Narendra Modi, told China’s leaders on Friday that it was up to them to rethink policies that he said had hindered cooperation between the Asian giants.
Mr. Modi made the comments to reporters in Beijing after meeting with China’s premier, Li Keqiang, and unveiling 24 agreements that both men said would help improve relations. But Mr. Modi added a proviso: that the Chinese government should consider India’s grievances.
“We covered all issues, including those that trouble smooth development of our relations,” Mr. Modi said of his talks with Mr. Li and, on Thursday, with China’s president, Xi Jinping.
The sources of contention have included long-running border disputes, a heavy trade imbalance in China’s favor and India’s wariness toward China’s partnership with Pakistan, India’s rival.
“I stressed the need for China to reconsider its approach on some of the issues that hold us back from realizing the full potential of our partnership,” Mr. Modi said in remarks broadcast live on Indian television. “I suggested that China should take a strategic and long-term view of our relations.”
Photo
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, left, and Premier Li Keqiang of China during a signing ceremony in Beijing on Friday. CreditGreg Baker/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
He added, “I found the Chinese leadership responsive.”
Mr. Modi’s caveat departed from the mild, oblique language that most Asian leaders use in public after meeting with leaders in Beijing, and it reflected the difficult balance he sought.
He has courted Chinese business and investment to shore up India’s economy and has stressed that he wants to deepen ties. Indian officials said there had been progress on several nagging issues, including confidence-building protocols at the countries’ disputed border and a high-level task force aimed at expanding trade.
But Mr. Modi has also promoted himself as a vigorous defender of Indian security interests and international standing.
“For him to say we hope the Chinese will reconsider their approach — it’s very politely put, and he added that he saw sensitivity to India’s concerns,” said Siddharth Varadarajan, an editor of The Wire, an Indian news website. “But that’s quite a strong way to put it.”
For now, both governments appear committed to containing their disagreements and building stronger economic ties. China’s ambassador to New Delhi, Le Yucheng, had said the deals signed during Mr. Modi’s visit could be worth $10 billion. Mr. Li, China’s premier, mostly avoided delicate policy areas in his comments to reporters, and he praised Mr. Modi’s efforts to reinvigorate the Indian economy and to improve relations with China.
“It’s clear that the Chinese government is going out of its way to demonstrate that it takes India and Narendra Modi in particular seriously,” said Peter Martin, an associate director in the New Delhi office of APCO Worldwide, a consultancy. “The challenge, of course, is making such rhetoric seem credible when the border dispute dominates public debate, especially in India.”
One indicator of good will was the absence of confrontation on the countries’ 2,200-mile border, much of it poorly defined and contested. Last September, as Mr. Modi and Mr. Xi entered their first meeting, Indian soldiers faced off against Chinese troops in the Himalayas.
On Friday, Mr. Modi said India wanted closer ties with China, including more investment, greater access to its markets and a shared commitment to ensure that their disagreements remained in check.
In the afternoon, addressing students at Tsinghua University, he presented a broad argument for cooperation: Both China and India face extremist terrorism whose “source is in the same region,” and uncertainty about energy supplies. He noted that the countries depend on the same sea lanes for international commerce, a point of sensitivity for China, which fears losing sea access for fuel imports in the event of hardening conflict with the United States or its allies.
India and China remain sensitive to any perceived challenges to territorial claims and affronts to national pride. Before Mr. Modi’s visit, for example, Indian news outlets seized on a commentary in a popular Chinese tabloid, Global Times, that accused Mr. Modi of “playing little tricks over border disputes and security issues.”
Many Chinese, in turn, remain wary and disdainful of India.
Mr. Modi “has deliberately looked for problems so that during negotiations with Chinese leaders he has more chips to bargain with,” Hu Zhiyong, the author of the Global Times commentary, said in a phone interview from Boston, where he is a visiting scholar. “We can’t have any hopes or expectations that Modi will make even the slightest concessions in negotiations with Chinese leaders on political and security matters.”
India has remained reticent on one of Mr. Xi’s central initiatives, a network of roads, railways and ports intended to link China to the rest of Asia and to Europe, known as One Belt, One Road. On Friday, India’s foreign secretary, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, called the plan “a Chinese initiative” and said Beijing had not approached India’s leaders about participating. “We are open to discussing this with the Chinese whenever they want to,” he said.
During the address at Tsinghua University, Mr. Modi announced that a simplified online visa protocol would be expanded to include Chinese tourists. It had been uncertain whether China would be included because of lingering wariness within India’s security agencies.
The two dozen agreements signed as Mr. Modi and Mr. Li looked on mostly involved strengthening government cooperation in areas including railways, mining and tourism. Mr. Jaishankar said commercial agreements would be unveiled on Saturday in Shanghai, where Mr. Modi will attend a business forum. “We can see more visible enthusiasm among Chinese businesses to invest in India,” Mr. Jaishankar said.
