BanglaBhoot
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Since both countries became independent nations, there has only been a single Sino-Indian armed conflict in 1962. Since then, even while India and China were engaged in war on other fronts, the Sino-Indian border has remained calm.
However, despite such a peaceful record, neither military has much contact with the other, a situation that makes them susceptible to disinformation from those countries that gain by India and China remaining geopolitically apart. Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie's visit to India on Tuesday will help reduce this "knowledge deficit" between the two ancient countries.
As the two countries are facing the same threats from foreign sources, separatism and terrorism, it would be in the overall interests of India and China for the militaries of the two to cooperate with each other.
At present, while defense links between India and the US are high and rising, military-to-military ties with China are near zero. This has created an imbalance in India's strategic diplomacy, and a propensity to look at the international situation through a narrow rather than a broad-spectrum lens.
As a consequence of the lack of adequate contact, despite the huge common ground on international issues, media attention in both countries gets focused on the relatively smaller areas where the two countries' views diverge. Such a perception plays into the hands of outsiders who seek to keep China and India apart. They know that were China and India to come together in meeting common security challenges, no outside powers can dominate Asia.
Both China and India have demonstrated their commitments to peaceful resolution of disputes, in contrast to NATO, which is daily engaged in acts of war in locations across the world, actions that have caused hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties. Peace is win-win, while war is usually zero-sum. The two militaries that give priority to peace over war, those of China and India, are natural partners of each other.
The lack of significant military-to-military ties between two countries that together have armed forces totaling over 6 million people is mirrored by a lack of ties in other spheres. For example, there are hardly a dozen direct flights between India and China, while cultural and sports contacts are also low. This is in contrast to business, which is expanding rapidly.
Indeed, in a situation where growth is faltering in Europe, India has become a major market for China to export goods and services, almost all at costs far below other international competitors. In energy, infrastructure and other fields, India has the potential to become a huge market, provided overall relations warm up to desired levels.
The common culture of professionalism provides the cement that can forge a close partnership between the armed forces of China and India. Such a partnership is needed, because both China and India have been facing terrorist and separatist efforts aimed at disrupting the lives of their citizens.
Hence it is logical that both share their experience and expertise in counter-terror operations. If the 21st century is to be the Asian century, there is need for much greater coordination between China and India, especially in the military sphere.
While Europe provided a horrible example of colonization and conflict in previous centuries, NATO is trudging the same road today, using armed forces to change regimes in weaker states. The zero-sum NATO preference for war as the preferred means of settling diplomatic differences needs to be shunned in favor of a win-win path of peace and harmony.
The coming together in friendship and cooperation between the militaries of India and China would be a significant step toward a comprehensive geopolitical partnership between two countries that together account for over 2.5 billion people, a partnership designed to ensure that countries and peoples that were dominated and exploited in the past gain the ability to lead their lives independent of external control, and can forge the institutions and instruments needed for their welfare. Closer defense coordination between China and India would, among other benefits, help to ensure that the oceans get cleansed of pirates.
The dream of those who are opposed to the steady increase in prosperity by both China and India is to somehow goad the two countries in the direction of tension and conflict. Such an outcome will be a nightmare for Asia, as it will set back the continent's chances for regaining the preeminent position that it enjoyed throughout much of human history.
Once there is closer contact between the militaries of China and India, the prospects for a resolution of the border issue would brighten substantially. Together with this, India and China could take the lead, together with Kuwait, Russia, Brazil and South Africa, to create international financial institutions which would better reflect current realities rather than the past.
Closer defense ties have the potential to ignite a much broader partnership that would be to the benefit of both sides. In such a context, Liang's visit to India is a welcome development, which needs to be followed up with a deepening of the strategic engagement between China and India.
Peace forges Sino-Indian military ties - Globaltimes.cn
Good omen for Sino-Indian ties
The post-Cold War period has seen the rising trend of military diplomacy. High-level military officials' visits, training of personnel in each other's military academies and joint military exercises to strengthen mutual trust and understanding among countries are becoming increasingly common.
In the same vein, given the centrality of "trust deficit" refrain in Sino-Indian discourse, the visit of China's Defense Minister General Liang Guanglie to India is primarily one of goodwill to rejuvenate China-India military-to-military interactions and help evolve better understanding of each other's strategic intentions and initiatives.
Most of the media commentaries, especially those from the West, however, have sought to sensationalize Liang's visit to India by highlighting that it is the first such visit in eight years. They project the visit as one aimed at resolving Sino-Indian differences and speculate on the potential of the two countries' militaries coming together to redefine regional security in the Asia-Pacific region.
Liang's visit to India undoubtedly represents a high-point in China's military diplomacy, but it is only part of the two countries' piecemeal rebuilding of military-to-military contacts over the past two years. More importantly, it had been planned with very specific objectives, which it has managed to achieve. To be precise, the two defense ministers agreed to encourage more high-level military and official exchanges, strengthen their regular military exercises, evolve joint naval understanding on their anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia, revive their joint naval search and rescue exercises, encourage regular mutual port calls by their ships and arrange for their officers' training in each other's military academies.
The two sides also agreed to revive their military exercises "at the earliest", which is expected to be early next year. That is also when India's Defense Minister A.K. Antony is expected to undertake his reciprocal visit to Beijing.
Starting from their initial discussions in 2003, the two sides had already conducted two joint naval and two counter-terrorism exercises, and were even discussing joint air force exercises before their 2009 annual defense dialogue and 2010 counter-terrorism exercise was called off. This brief gap in their interaction attributed to specific issues, has also been juxtaposed with the signing of Indo-US Civilian Nuclear Cooperation Agreement and thus widely interpreted as signaling the freezing of Sino-Indian ties. But while there were sporadic hiccups - and some of them continue even now - there was never a serious stand-off or complete freeze in their interactions and visits.
For instance, a delegation of senior Indian military officers visited Beijing, Urumqi and Shanghai in June last year followed by the fourth China-India Annual Defense Dialogue in New Delhi in December. It was the third Annual Defense Dialogue that was delayed and ultimately held in Beijing in January 2010, while the second Annual Defense Dialogue was held in January 2008.
This was followed by Chinese and Indian high-level military delegations exchanging visits in December 2011 and June this year. Zhenghe, China's famous naval ship, visited Kochi on a four-day goodwill trip in May this year to commemorate Chinese explorer and diplomat Zheng He's visit to the city in South India in the early 15th century. So it betrays motives to sensationalize occasional delays and hiccups in Sino-Indian interactions, which are neither threatening to derail their relations nor abnormal to any bilateral ties.
Liang's visit to India is also being projected as part of China's overdrive in military diplomacy with neighboring countries, especially those with which Beijing has territorial or maritime disputes. This again seems extraneous to the timing of Sino-Indian initiatives to build trust and understanding between their two militaries.
If anything, it is the larger issues of maritime piracy, transnational crime and the shifting of the United States' military focus from continental Asia (Iraq and Afghanistan) to the Asia-Pacific region that might have inspired New Delhi and Beijing to expedite their mutual consultations on issues of regional security.
Frankly speaking, no one in China or India was expecting Liang's visit to have regional implications or achieve any political breakthrough as nothing "new" had been planned for his visit other than successfully reviving Sino-Indian military-to-military interactions, which was halted for two years. And this limited objective has certainly been achieved.
India shares a growing strong economic relationship with China, but their military interactions remain confined to ensuring peace and tranquility on their disputed border, in contrast to India's close defense cooperation with the US. This, however, leaves New Delhi and Beijing with a lot more to achieve.
However, thanks to the Western media's commentaries insinuating larger and ulterior motives to Liang's visit to India, a certain air of enthusiasm has surely engulfed the equations between New Delhi and Beijing. Perhaps global interest in this limited rapprochement between Chinese and Indian militaries highlights how the world views Sino-Indian interactions to be pregnant with the potential of unleashing systematic changes.
Good omen for Sino-Indian ties |Op-Ed Contributors |chinadaily.com.cn
However, despite such a peaceful record, neither military has much contact with the other, a situation that makes them susceptible to disinformation from those countries that gain by India and China remaining geopolitically apart. Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie's visit to India on Tuesday will help reduce this "knowledge deficit" between the two ancient countries.
As the two countries are facing the same threats from foreign sources, separatism and terrorism, it would be in the overall interests of India and China for the militaries of the two to cooperate with each other.
At present, while defense links between India and the US are high and rising, military-to-military ties with China are near zero. This has created an imbalance in India's strategic diplomacy, and a propensity to look at the international situation through a narrow rather than a broad-spectrum lens.
As a consequence of the lack of adequate contact, despite the huge common ground on international issues, media attention in both countries gets focused on the relatively smaller areas where the two countries' views diverge. Such a perception plays into the hands of outsiders who seek to keep China and India apart. They know that were China and India to come together in meeting common security challenges, no outside powers can dominate Asia.
Both China and India have demonstrated their commitments to peaceful resolution of disputes, in contrast to NATO, which is daily engaged in acts of war in locations across the world, actions that have caused hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties. Peace is win-win, while war is usually zero-sum. The two militaries that give priority to peace over war, those of China and India, are natural partners of each other.
The lack of significant military-to-military ties between two countries that together have armed forces totaling over 6 million people is mirrored by a lack of ties in other spheres. For example, there are hardly a dozen direct flights between India and China, while cultural and sports contacts are also low. This is in contrast to business, which is expanding rapidly.
Indeed, in a situation where growth is faltering in Europe, India has become a major market for China to export goods and services, almost all at costs far below other international competitors. In energy, infrastructure and other fields, India has the potential to become a huge market, provided overall relations warm up to desired levels.
The common culture of professionalism provides the cement that can forge a close partnership between the armed forces of China and India. Such a partnership is needed, because both China and India have been facing terrorist and separatist efforts aimed at disrupting the lives of their citizens.
Hence it is logical that both share their experience and expertise in counter-terror operations. If the 21st century is to be the Asian century, there is need for much greater coordination between China and India, especially in the military sphere.
While Europe provided a horrible example of colonization and conflict in previous centuries, NATO is trudging the same road today, using armed forces to change regimes in weaker states. The zero-sum NATO preference for war as the preferred means of settling diplomatic differences needs to be shunned in favor of a win-win path of peace and harmony.
The coming together in friendship and cooperation between the militaries of India and China would be a significant step toward a comprehensive geopolitical partnership between two countries that together account for over 2.5 billion people, a partnership designed to ensure that countries and peoples that were dominated and exploited in the past gain the ability to lead their lives independent of external control, and can forge the institutions and instruments needed for their welfare. Closer defense coordination between China and India would, among other benefits, help to ensure that the oceans get cleansed of pirates.
The dream of those who are opposed to the steady increase in prosperity by both China and India is to somehow goad the two countries in the direction of tension and conflict. Such an outcome will be a nightmare for Asia, as it will set back the continent's chances for regaining the preeminent position that it enjoyed throughout much of human history.
Once there is closer contact between the militaries of China and India, the prospects for a resolution of the border issue would brighten substantially. Together with this, India and China could take the lead, together with Kuwait, Russia, Brazil and South Africa, to create international financial institutions which would better reflect current realities rather than the past.
Closer defense ties have the potential to ignite a much broader partnership that would be to the benefit of both sides. In such a context, Liang's visit to India is a welcome development, which needs to be followed up with a deepening of the strategic engagement between China and India.
Peace forges Sino-Indian military ties - Globaltimes.cn
Good omen for Sino-Indian ties
The post-Cold War period has seen the rising trend of military diplomacy. High-level military officials' visits, training of personnel in each other's military academies and joint military exercises to strengthen mutual trust and understanding among countries are becoming increasingly common.
In the same vein, given the centrality of "trust deficit" refrain in Sino-Indian discourse, the visit of China's Defense Minister General Liang Guanglie to India is primarily one of goodwill to rejuvenate China-India military-to-military interactions and help evolve better understanding of each other's strategic intentions and initiatives.
Most of the media commentaries, especially those from the West, however, have sought to sensationalize Liang's visit to India by highlighting that it is the first such visit in eight years. They project the visit as one aimed at resolving Sino-Indian differences and speculate on the potential of the two countries' militaries coming together to redefine regional security in the Asia-Pacific region.
Liang's visit to India undoubtedly represents a high-point in China's military diplomacy, but it is only part of the two countries' piecemeal rebuilding of military-to-military contacts over the past two years. More importantly, it had been planned with very specific objectives, which it has managed to achieve. To be precise, the two defense ministers agreed to encourage more high-level military and official exchanges, strengthen their regular military exercises, evolve joint naval understanding on their anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia, revive their joint naval search and rescue exercises, encourage regular mutual port calls by their ships and arrange for their officers' training in each other's military academies.
The two sides also agreed to revive their military exercises "at the earliest", which is expected to be early next year. That is also when India's Defense Minister A.K. Antony is expected to undertake his reciprocal visit to Beijing.
Starting from their initial discussions in 2003, the two sides had already conducted two joint naval and two counter-terrorism exercises, and were even discussing joint air force exercises before their 2009 annual defense dialogue and 2010 counter-terrorism exercise was called off. This brief gap in their interaction attributed to specific issues, has also been juxtaposed with the signing of Indo-US Civilian Nuclear Cooperation Agreement and thus widely interpreted as signaling the freezing of Sino-Indian ties. But while there were sporadic hiccups - and some of them continue even now - there was never a serious stand-off or complete freeze in their interactions and visits.
For instance, a delegation of senior Indian military officers visited Beijing, Urumqi and Shanghai in June last year followed by the fourth China-India Annual Defense Dialogue in New Delhi in December. It was the third Annual Defense Dialogue that was delayed and ultimately held in Beijing in January 2010, while the second Annual Defense Dialogue was held in January 2008.
This was followed by Chinese and Indian high-level military delegations exchanging visits in December 2011 and June this year. Zhenghe, China's famous naval ship, visited Kochi on a four-day goodwill trip in May this year to commemorate Chinese explorer and diplomat Zheng He's visit to the city in South India in the early 15th century. So it betrays motives to sensationalize occasional delays and hiccups in Sino-Indian interactions, which are neither threatening to derail their relations nor abnormal to any bilateral ties.
Liang's visit to India is also being projected as part of China's overdrive in military diplomacy with neighboring countries, especially those with which Beijing has territorial or maritime disputes. This again seems extraneous to the timing of Sino-Indian initiatives to build trust and understanding between their two militaries.
If anything, it is the larger issues of maritime piracy, transnational crime and the shifting of the United States' military focus from continental Asia (Iraq and Afghanistan) to the Asia-Pacific region that might have inspired New Delhi and Beijing to expedite their mutual consultations on issues of regional security.
Frankly speaking, no one in China or India was expecting Liang's visit to have regional implications or achieve any political breakthrough as nothing "new" had been planned for his visit other than successfully reviving Sino-Indian military-to-military interactions, which was halted for two years. And this limited objective has certainly been achieved.
India shares a growing strong economic relationship with China, but their military interactions remain confined to ensuring peace and tranquility on their disputed border, in contrast to India's close defense cooperation with the US. This, however, leaves New Delhi and Beijing with a lot more to achieve.
However, thanks to the Western media's commentaries insinuating larger and ulterior motives to Liang's visit to India, a certain air of enthusiasm has surely engulfed the equations between New Delhi and Beijing. Perhaps global interest in this limited rapprochement between Chinese and Indian militaries highlights how the world views Sino-Indian interactions to be pregnant with the potential of unleashing systematic changes.
Good omen for Sino-Indian ties |Op-Ed Contributors |chinadaily.com.cn
Then why they went to fight with you.
