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Not closed to business with China, but national security key: Jaishankar
Jaishankar made the remarks while participating in a discussion with his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock in Berlin
India is “not closed” to business dealings with China, though businesses need to factor in national security consequences because all countries are not the same, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said on Tuesday.
Jaishankar made the remarks while participating in a discussion with his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock as part of the annual ambassadors’ conference of the German foreign office in Berlin. He was responding to questions from business leaders about challenges confronting India and the country’s trade relations with China. “We are not closed to business from China. It’s the second largest economy in the world, it’s a premium manufacturer. There’s nobody who can say I won’t do business with China,” he said while replying to a specific question on trade and investment ties with China.
“I think the issue is which sectors do you do business, on what terms do you do business,” he said, outlining India’s position on trade against the backdrop of a dragging military standoff with China on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) that began in April 2020.
“It’s far more complicated than a black and white, binary answer,” he added.
After the standoff on the LAC took bilateral relations to a six-decade low, India banned more than 400 Chinese apps, including TikTok, and took steps to effectively restrict new Chinese investments. Earlier, authorities had blocked Chinese telecom major Huawei from participating in the creation of new 5G networks.
Jaishankar said India had rolled out its own 5G solution that had factored in the cost of ensuring national security. He said businesses need to understand that their exposure can have national security consequences, and the Indian government is well within its rights to tell businesses to “slow down and look at things carefully”.
There are also debates on “where business stops and where security begins”, and this is a legitimate issue because all countries are not the same and “not everybody plays by the same rules”, he said. This is a challenge that will assume a bigger dimension in the digital era, including precautions related to cross-border flows of data, and India is trying to tackle this issue with the European Union (EU) through the Trade and Technology Council, he said.
Jaishankar had spoken out several times in recent months about the need for careful handling of trade and investments with China. In August, he said India has a “special China problem” and the military standoff on the LAC and the state of bilateral relations underline the need for precautions, such as scrutiny of Chinese investments.
