China, India should treat competition rationally

The Fourth Meeting of BRICS Leaders will be held in New Delhi, capital of India in March. Indian Foreign Minister Somanahalli Mallaiah Krishna recently visited China. Representing the Indian Premier Manmohan Singh, he invited Chinese leaders to visit India during the period of the Meeting of BRICS Leaders.

In recent years, China and India's cooperation has made significant achievements in various areas, and both countries have maintained good coordination and cooperation in dealing with major international affairs, including border issues. During the meeting, the two sides signed a negotiation and coordination working mechanism for border issues to deal with emergencies on the border, paving the way for the Indian Foreign Minister's visit to China.

Of course, we must clearly realize that, despite the improvement of the bilateral relations in these years, the voices of fearing China, voices suspecting China and opposing China could still be heard in many places in India. But these voices cannot change the mainstream viewpoint of India. Far-sighted governmental officials of India propose to desert the Cold War mentality and rationally consider competition between China and India to promote the development of the China-India relations.

The world has entered the second decade of the 21st century, and the development of the China-India relations is being tested by the United States' strategic adjustment in the Asia-Pacific Region, which will have a complicated and in-depth influence on the future of China-India relations.

The United States made its high-profile announcement to “return to the Asia-Pacific region” in 2010. Besides, it hosted the first U.S.-Japan-India trilateral dialogue last year. One of the main topics of the dialogue is on how to deal with China’s growing global military and political status. India’s participation put it into the “diplomatic network” jointly established by the United States and Japan with the purpose of besieging China.

Earlier this year, the United States introduced a new military strategy, aiming to shift its military focus to the Asia-Pacific region. U.S.-led multinational military cooperations, including U.S.-Australia-India cooperation and U.S.-Japan-India cooperation, have gradually become more institutionalized and normalized. The United States is now actively building a new Asia-Pacific strategic structure in favor of itself and accelerating its pace of strategic eastward.

Both China and India are the world’s largest developing countries and emerging economies. The two countries have many common strategic interests, notwithstanding certain differences. China and India have similar views and common strategic needs in many aspects of international affairs, and share common understanding and value judgments in quite many fields. For example, both are unanimous in opposing unipolar world while supporting a multipolar world; both need a stable and peaceful environment for development and advocate establishing a harmonious surrounding environment.

To this end, the possibility for both countries to make friendly cooperation is much greater than that of walking toward conflicts and war. Therefore, China and India need to deal with bilateral relations from a strategic perspective and actively adopt pragmatic foreign policies based on mutual cooperation and strategic partnership to achieve a deeper and deeper Sino-Indian relationship. This will be conductive to create a mutual trust and benefit featured Asian security environment and deter penetration from foreign powers who attempt to interfere with Asian affairs.

(Hu Zhiyong, associate researcher of the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies under the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences)