How India is meticulously de-hyphenating China's relations with countries in South Asia

The recent three-day, two-nation southern neighbourhood visit of External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar was marked by a noticeable departure by the national media and strategic community, from the past several years. Possibly for the first time, neither talked about China’s presence, influence or interference in Maldives and Sri Lanka, how that was affecting India’s relations with host nations, and how New Delhi should handle the smaller neighbours in the matter. It was a welcome departure that whatever limited coverage that the national media gave the EAM’s visit was about developmental positives and political reiteration of help and assistance to both nations. In the run-up to the visit, Sri Lankan stakeholders, including the local media, positively reported on India writing to the IMF on restructuring debt repayment, which was among the condition precedents for the international institution to actualise the promised $2.9 billion, to help tide over the continuing fiscal crisis. New Delhi beat China to it once again, as according to reports, Beijing was still considering writing to the IMF on the Indian lines, a week after a high-level ministerial delegation visited Colombo just ahead of Jaishankar’s visit. Local media gave more space to the Chinese delegation complaining to a Buddhist prelate in Kandy about an invitation extended by some monks for the Dalai Lama to visit the country, as it would help promote religious tourism in a big way – than talk about debt-restructuring in the capital. Incidentally, the Dalai Lama’s aides have since clarified that the Tibetan leader had no plans to visit Sri Lanka any time soon. Doing what’s right Explaining the Indian position on debt restructuring from the perspective of the nation’s “Neighbourhood First’ policy, EAM Jaishankar clarified in Colombo that New Delhi did not ‘wait for other bilateral creditors (of Sri Lanka) …. did what is right’ to help the island-nation. This was not a mere statement but a reiteration of the proven Indian position in neighbourhood relations. In the immediate context, India despatched food, fuel and medicine, and also restructured some of the pending repayments, all totalling a very substantial $3.9 billion in a matter of months, when the southern neighbour was struck by unprecedented economic and forex crises last year. More than a year later, the rest of the world together has not chipped in even half as much, if not less. Thus, New Delhi did not sulk when it came to rushing chemical fertilizers at short notice after the previous government of former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa had played dirty and imported organic fertilizer from Chinese adversary without informing and educating the local farmers in advance – leading again to an unprecedented man-made disaster on the agriculture front. India did not allow national pride or personal egos to come in the way, and all over again. Even without it all, India had rushed medical supplies including testing kits first and vaccines later to neighbouring countries starting with Maldives and Sri Lanka when the pandemic struck the world. Underlying ancient India’s ancient philosophy of ‘global brotherhood’, better identified as ‘Vasudeva Kudumbagam’ (Sanskrit) and ‘Yaadhum Oore, Yavarum Kelir’ (Tamil), two of the oldest languages in the world, New Delhi, in fact, sent the vaccines first to the neighbours even before vaccinating its own people, who were dying in tens of thousands and falling sick in hundreds of thousands. It flowed from and also towards India’s revived commitment to the Global South, where all three belonged, this year as the G20 chair. Such an Indian approach, not stopping with geographical neighbours, has both need and potential in the ever-evolving 21st-century global order, especially post-pandemic. It’s thus that New Delhi did not hold controversial and India-unfriendly China dealings of Sri Lanka in particular against its people. That is, even granting that the Maldivian government of President Ibrahim Solih was considered more India-friendly than most previous regimes, starting with the immediate predecessor of President Abdulla Yameen, jailed now as then on corruption charges. So much so, India rushing shiploads of oxygen, yes, to Sri Lanka at the height of the pandemic is unprecedented by any standards. In the case of Maldives, New Delhi had despatched ship-loads of drinking water in December 2015 when the lone desalination plant for the capital Male was destroyed in a fire. Both oxygen and drinking water are freely available commodities, nature’s gift to mankind, but there have been occasions when they have become scarce for communities that their governments had to press the SOS button for help. When India helped the two nations, among other neighbours, and also faraway nations – it supplied Covid vaccines to Brazil and many other nations, for instance –- both Maldives (Yameen) and Sri Lanka (Gota Rajapaksa) were being ruled by Presidents who were considered and had also proved to be India-unfriendly. Yameen went on to become an India-antagonist and adversary after his government asked New Delhi to take back two helicopters, given away as gifts, for deployment in humanitarian missions like medical emergencies and cyclone-evacuation from isolated islands. Stuck in the middle As Indian spokespersons, starting with EAM Jaishankar, said on repeated occasions, New Delhi’s was ‘humanitarian assistance’ to the affected people, and obviously different from bailing out local regimes that were otherwise stuck in the middle. Of course, the immediate reference was to Sri Lanka, but New Delhi proved its worth when it similarly offered Covid assistance and also flood relief to historic adversary, Pakistan. Jaishankar’s recent twin-nation visit has precisely proved this point, not just in one capital but both – and how? In the Maldives, where the EAM visited first, he skipped the capital Male, which would have given him and India extra media mileage, especially locally, that too in an election year. Presidential elections are fixed for 9 September and just now there is a huge contest for the ruling MDP ticket, between incumbent Solih and party chief Mohammed Nasheed, who is at present Parliament Speaker and the nation’s first Head of State and Government under the multi-party democracy format in 2008. The primaries are due on 28 January. Outside of the ruling party, the Opposition PPM-PNC combine is at sixes and sevens after a trial court handed down an 11-year jail-term to their leader and predecessor President, Abdulla Yameen, in a graft case, disqualifying him from contesting the presidential polls. Legal experts are not sure if Yameen would have enough time for clearing the two-stage appeals, where he has only fervent hopes of an acquittal and a chance to file nominations before closing time on 3 August. In this background, Jaishankar’s choice of northern Hanimaadhoo for his visit and launching work on expanding the island airport to international standards, and also his talks with President Solih and counterpart Abdullah Shahid, was bereft of any initiative or comment that the anti-India Yameen camp, or even the pro-India Team Nasheed in the ruling party, could find objectionable. Unless of course, someone wanted to find fault with the very idea of the visit, Jaishankar’s fourth since becoming EAM, the seasoned diplomat said and did all the right things, and stopped there. However, it is in the Sri Lankan context that India’s de-hyphenation of the nation’s China relations was more pronounced, hence visible. Apart from any known reference to China in bilateral talks other than what possibly Sri Lankan leaders could –- not ‘would’ – have briefed the visitor about the status of credit restructuring with that country, India also seems to have put the controversial spy ship ‘Yuan Wang 5’ last year, behind. With a 200-nautical mile operational reach, the Chinese vessel could have done what all it was anticipated to do in neighbourhood waters from a distance. Hence, the ship calling at the southern Hambantota Port in China’s possession may have been either for the purpose it was claimed to have berthed – for restocking -– or to send out a political message, as much to Colombo as to New Delhi. If the latter were the case, Sri Lanka, especially the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN), should be more concerned about it all – before the concern of the island nation falls on India’s lap, either directly or otherwise. After all, both nations are on the same page that external security of one is deeply linked to that of the other. This is also the spirit behind the formation of the four-nation ‘Colombo Security Conclave’ (CSC) with Maldives and Mauritius as members, and Bangladesh and Seychelles as observers. For now, the CSC’s mandate is confined to non-traditional security areas, but there is scope and need for expanding it to include traditional security, too, and in good time. It however implies that every member-nation has a responsibility to secure the region as a whole, and thus care for the security concerns of others as much as they worry for its own. Demonstrated willingness During his recent visit, India’s Jaishankar thus focussed only on bilateral matters, particularly those in which India as the acknowledged leader of South Asia by the sheer size of its economy (and also demonstrated willingness) can be of help and assistance. In Maldives’ Hanimaadhoo, Jaishankar said as much when he observed that India-funded projects (are chosen to) ‘make path to a better lifestyle for locals. In Colombo, the minister’s discussions focussed on assisting Sri Lanka even more, both on the economic and limited political front, the latter in the context of the unresolved ethnic issue. Just now, the ethnic issue, if left unresolved, can impede financial assistance and investments from the West, both directly and even more through international institutions like the IMF and World Bank. Investments and fiscal assistance matter the most for Sri Lanka just now than anytime in the past and hopefully in the future – and the West is adamant about its post-war posturing and positions in the UNHRC. It was thus that the two sides took up energy cooperation from where they had left with the signing of bilateral agreements during the Colombo visit of then-foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla in October 2021. Sri Lanka’s economic crisis and accompanying political avalanche intervened between then and now, but it also showed up Sri Lanka’s continuing energy predicament for what it was worth. If on this score the two nations have agreed to make coastal Trincomalee in Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province as an ‘energy hub’, on the ethnic issue, India supported the neighbour’s efforts at re-instilling fresh impetus and urgency to the full implementation of the 13th Amendment to the nation’s Constitution, facilitated by New Delhi in a bygone era. In a combined meeting with all Tamil leaders cutting across party identities that is also rare, Jaishankar told them, how they needed the implementation of 13-A first, even for moving forward with their separate visions for more political powers that aimed at a common goal that however has remained distant. The writer is a Chennai-based policy analyst and political commentator. Views expressed are personal. Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.