Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s three-nation tour to Japan, China and Singapore is not merely a symbolic exercise or the usual summer tour. It is part of the architecture of India’s new foreign and security policy, whose foundations remain the country’s long-standing policy of non-alignment — distinct from the baroque Non-Aligned Movement.
In 21st century terms, this translates into a policy of shoring up and enhancing India’s strategic autonomy — or freedom to decide what it wants to do on this or that issue, based purely on its national interest. In that matrix, India’s relations with all three countries are of the highest importance. Japan, the world’s second greatest economy, is, like India, a liberal democracy, as well as a formidable technological power. While its pacifist Constitution bars military exports, its non-military technology and economic assistance have the ability to transform India. Singapore is arguably India’s closest friend in the Asean and a country that looks to India to play a balancing role in the South-east Asian region. Besides its strategic location, Singapore is also a great reservoir of managerial and technological talent.
Mr Mukherjee’s China visit was perhaps the most important because of, to put it bluntly, its capacity to harm India. China’s burgeoning economy can benefit India immensely, but our first priority is to get some rather complex issues out of the way — our disputed border, and Beijing’s continuing support for Pakistan’s nuclear and missile programmes. In this context, confidence-building measures such as the MoU that Mr Mukherjee signed with his Chinese counterpart, General Cao Gangchuan, are important as it seeks to promote defence and military exchanges as well as joint military exercises. The warm Chinese reception to Mr Mukherjee and the high-level access he was given to People’s Liberation Army facilities are a positive sign.
{{/usCountry}}Mr Mukherjee’s China visit was perhaps the most important because of, to put it bluntly, its capacity to harm India. China’s burgeoning economy can benefit India immensely, but our first priority is to get some rather complex issues out of the way — our disputed border, and Beijing’s continuing support for Pakistan’s nuclear and missile programmes. In this context, confidence-building measures such as the MoU that Mr Mukherjee signed with his Chinese counterpart, General Cao Gangchuan, are important as it seeks to promote defence and military exchanges as well as joint military exercises. The warm Chinese reception to Mr Mukherjee and the high-level access he was given to People’s Liberation Army facilities are a positive sign.
{{/usCountry}}However, any confidence-building between the armed forces of the two countries must be accompanied by action on the more substantive issues such as the border and the Sino-Pak relationship. We have to accept that some Chinese links with Pakistan are a function of its difficulties with India. Closer ties with New Delhi will have to precede a change in that ‘all-weather’ relationship. On the other hand, the Sino-Indian ties will continue to be ‘complex’ if the China-Pakistan relationship remains what it is.