E-visas to state partnerships: India tries to strengthen ties, but will China reciprocate?

There is not much of a difference in relationships between nations and relationships between individuals. In both cases problems arise when you say ‘yes’ too early or ‘no’ too late. It is difficult to adjudge at this point of time whether by announcing his decision to grant e-visas to Chinese tourists Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said ‘yes’ too soon. But it will definitely stir a hornet’s nest in Indian domestic politics for the simple reason that this facility is going to be extended to a country which issues stapled visas to Indians domiciled in Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. [caption id=“attachment_2246990” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese president Xi Jinping. PTI[/caption] One would like to believe that PM Modi has taken this unilateral step and walked an extra mile perhaps after getting some king of assurance from the Chinese leaders on the issue of stapled visas. Through this policy of stapled visas, China has actually taken sides in India-Pakistan dispute over the Kashmir issue as China issues proper visas to people domiciled in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. One would like to see what happens now to a person from Jammu and Kashmir or from Arunachal Pradesh who wants to visit China as a tourist. Will they now get regular visas or the same old stapled visas? But a more important question is whether Modi has done a Nehru in believing Beijing or whether he proves to be a real Chanakya hitherto unseen in India-China context? The political leg of PM Modi’s China visit concluded on Friday and the third and final leg of his China visit in Shanghai on Saturday is purely laced with economic and business agenda. The Joint Statement released at the end of his political parleys with the Chinese leadership conveys a few new points and a novel approach, the most significant being the two sides’ decision to ensure greater role of states/provinces in bilateral relationship. As a result, Noting the increasingly important role played by Indian States and Chinese Provinces in advancing the bilateral relationship, the two sides agreed to establish a State/Provincial Leaders’ Forum. The first meeting of the Forum was held in Beijing on Friday with the participation of PM Modi and Premier Li. To facilitate and promote greater cultural, tourism, economic and people-to-people engagement between the two countries, an additional Consulate General shall be established in each other’s country: Indian Consulate in Chengdu and Chinese Consulate in Chennai. The most important aspect of India-China relationship, from the Indian point of view, is two-fold. One, the borders between them should remain tranquil and for that the boundary dispute needs to be amicably resolved in double quick time. Two, the China-Pakistan axis and its lengthening shadow over India-China relations. On both these counts, the two sides had little progress to boast of, though this itself is quite a significant thing that the two Asian giants are staying engaged. Therefore, their commitment to enhance border defence cooperation should be seen from this perspective. Since the military-to-military component of India-China bilateral ties is of crucial importance the two sides have decided to carry out annual visits and exchanges between the two military headquarters and neighbouring military commands, endeavour to operationalise the hotline between the two military headquarters, expand the exchanges between the border commanders, and establish border personnel meeting points at all sectors of the India-China border areas. A relevant quote from the Joint Statement with regard to boundary dispute is as follows: “The two sides will resolve outstanding differences, including the boundary question, in a proactive manner. Those differences should not be allowed to come in the way of continued development of bilateral relations. Peace and tranquillity on the India-China border was recognized as an important guarantor for the development and continued growth of bilateral relations. Pending a final resolution of the boundary question, the two sides commit to implementing the existing agreements and continue to make efforts to maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas.” Having a provincial partnership between Karnataka and Sichuan and sister-city relationships between Aurangabad — Dunhuang, Chennai — Chongqing and Hyderabad – Qingdao may not be be exactly a game-changer in the Sino-Indian relations but steps such as these go a long way in improving the bilateral climate. It is on the basis of this positive climate only that they can take forward their cooperation in various sectors in a tangible manner. Railway is one such sector and PM Modi and his Chinese interlocutors rightly emphasised this and noted with satisfaction the steps taken and the progress achieved in the Railway sector cooperation including the projects on speed raising on the existing Chennai-Bengaluru-Mysore line, the proposed feasibility studies for the Delhi-Nagpur section of high speed rail link, the station redevelopment planning for Bhubaneswar and Baiyappanahalli, heavy haul transportation training and setting up of a railway university. While it is a good thing to improve relations with China, the basic template can never change for any Indian prime minister: trust, but verify.