From border dispute to Kailash Mansarovar: Here's what Sushma Swaraj spoke on India-China ties

Beijing: How are the bilateral relations between two biggest and contiguous neighbours in Asia – India and China – going to pan out in the coming weeks and months? First let’s have the hard facts and information from the horse’s mouth, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj who is in Beijing. This is what she said on different issues in response to questions:

On the boundary dispute

- An out of the box solution may still come on this issue. The new Chinese government had dropped indications way back in 2013 soon after its taking over that “out of the box” solutions would be made for the boundary dispute. Swaraj was dismissive of the earlier government and said she was optimistic about striking gold in the form of an out of the box solution with regard to China on the border dispute.

- The External Affairs Minister said the previous government did not have the political wherewithal to do it and added that her government owed it to the posterity that this contentious issue is resolved at the soonest.

On bilateral ties

- Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be paying an official stand-alone maiden visit to China before May this year after he completes a year in office.

- The Kailash Mansarovar opens only in June, said MEA spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin, obviously implying that PM Modi would be visiting China before May when he competes a year in office. Needless to say that the Indian PM does not travel to China at the drop of a hat.

On Kailash Mansarovar

- India and China have just exchanged final documents (during Swaraj’s visit) on the operationalisation of an alternative route to the Kailash Mansarovar shrine from Nathu La in Sikkim and  the first batch of approximately 250 pilgrims will start the first journey to the shrine from June this year. Normally, about 900 people undertake this journey every year to Kailash Mansarovar from the Nepal route but this route is hazardous. In contrast the yet-to-be opened Sikkim route is motorable.

- Indian ambassador in China Ashok Kantha, who visited the Kaliash Mansarovar in October 2014, said the site was saddled with serious administrative and arrangement issues and one would have to wait before the number of people visiting the Kailash Mansarovar could be increased dramatically.

Swaraj is a past master in the art of handling the media and all spokespersons, including Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin, could learn from her. Five chairs were put up on the podium of a hall in Raffles Hotel in Beijing on Sunday evening to brief the media about Swaraj’s bilateral talks with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. The waiting media had no clue who would be briefing them and after much delay, there was a sudden flurry of activity and officials manned the entire floor right from the lift area.

Meanwhile, another official entered the hall and pushed back one of the five seats to the middle and shoved the rest inside the table, implying that only one person would be briefing the media. The signal was clear, it would be the External Affairs Minister herself.

Soon, Swaraj walked in. She had barely stepped on to the podium and Akbaruddin casually told her to “meet everyone” from below. A junior official scurried to bring a chair on which she eventually sat below the stage from where she was originally .

She spoke to the media – much of it in Hindi – from that lone chair placed below the stage. She did not duck any question. She smiled at every bouncer from the prying media, including several from yours truly, and never said “only one question please” or “last question please” as is the wont of MEA spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin.

After about half an hour she walked away and sometime later the media was told that her “interaction” with the media should be deemed as official and she was on record for this interaction. This was the master stroke which only the likes of Sushma Swaraj could deliver. She met the press impromptu, made several important points but maintained a very high deniability quotient considering that it was an interaction of which the MEA would not make its transcript and put on its website.

This was the master stroke which only the likes of Sushma Swaraj could deliver. She met the press impromptu, made several important points but maintained a very high deniability quotient considering that it was an interaction of which the MEA would not make its transcript and put on its website.

It does not happen too often that an Indian foreign minister’s talks with the foreign minister of an important country like China is not followed up by a formal and structured briefing which is finally capped by the MEA releasing the briefing’s transcript. Rules in this business of high table diplomacy appear to be changing with Swaraj at helm. But journalists won’t be complaining as long as they get the updates directly from the minister!

*The writer, a Consulting Editor with Firstpost and a strategic analyst, is currently visiting China as part of a select India media delegation at the invitation of the Chinese government. His Twitter handle is @Kishkindha.