New Delhi: Some years back, R N Ravi, present Tamil Nadu Governor, had informed the centre that while there has been an overall improvement in insurgency-related situations in the northeast under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, China has once again become active in ‘consolidating’ various militant groups.
Now in 2023, look who is crying. India has “generally shifted away from Pakistan” towards its larger concerns, the Indo-Pacific strategy and relations with China. This melancholy remark comes from a Pakistani expert. The reasons are multiple. Let us move to Sri Lanka, where we know why people are in agony. In Sri Lanka, China had built a power plant for USD 1.3 billion, and the tiny island nation had issues repaying the loans. Helplessly, Colombo requested Beijing for equity deals.
China ultimately succeeded in pushing the alleged predatory economic policies. It re-evaluated the project at 2/3rd of the cost. This is both – the old and ‘new’ China. Beijing has similar plans in Myanmar, and Gwadar port in Pakistan also makes people raise eyebrows. So, should not G-20 – the powerful international platform – know some of it, if not all?
Recently net surfers were greeted online with a catchy headline and the news that says -“Pakistan appears to have been dumped by their “sweet as honey” friend, China. Seeing no positive signs of recovery, many Chinese companies in the crisis-hit country have remained reluctant to continue their projects due to delayed payments and rising exchange rates”. Ting tong, or Ping pong!
Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, was under fire for the economic crisis in December and made a plea to Beijing for a bailout. It did come. Nevertheless, observers do not miss that China’s generous offer to extend the maturity of USD 4.2 billion loans is never there for ‘economic recovery’ for Islamabad. It does, of course, promote the strategic interests of Beijing.
Now to look back, Pakistan should have realised that its policy on Gwadar was misconceived from the beginning. Indian authorities have been telling us that when Karachi and Miq Qasim ports were not functioning “even to half of their capacity”, how much commercial sense the third port made. Will Pakistani leaders still need some time to read between the lines?
“Gwadar has been tense because of continuing protests and sit-ins being held in the heart of the port town over the past two months,” says a report in ‘Dawn’ newspaper. But it only tells half the story. The G20 will
need to be told the story completely.
There is another Pakistani melancholy tune these days. “Pakistan, they say, is not on the radar of Indian public consciousness as it once was”. Yes, India has decided to move ahead, and G20 will have to be narrated
this part of the story completely.
On the other side of the table, we may debate how India’s old policy of trying to build a relationship with China did not help much. New Delhi policymakers in the sixties and even later under Congress and other Congress-supported dispensations believed that the ‘great civilisational’ Asian brothers, India and China, had a common goal of fighting poverty and pursuing development. China has different plans.
There is no gainsaying to point out that China has run roughshod over India’s concerns through its Belt and Road Initiatives. The fault line does not end with India alone. This aspect has not been highlighted much by pro-Left liberals in Indian media. China’s attempts to undermine the political principles of South Asia and democracy are also well known, but more in the region.
China is using the UN platform as a member of P-5 on numerous occasions, but its essential political principle is hardly democratic. Instead, Beijing must be exposed at G20 and even otherwise for its neo-colonialism tendencies by developing unproductive mega projects and leading those needy nations into debt traps.
With regard to Pakistan, thus, a safe advisory caution could be – if you have a friend and a saviour like China, you do not need anything else to walk towards destruction. Sri Lanka also understands that better today, but it’s late in the day.
In this backdrop, the international community will have to appreciate New Delhi’s stance.
Here the statement from External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar made during his Sri Lanka visit on Jan 20, 2023, is relevant. “I would like to underline that India is a reliable neighbour, a trustworthy partner, one
who is prepared to go the extra mile when Sri Lanka feels the need. My presence here today is a statement about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s commitment to ‘Neighbourhood First’.”
Dr Jaishankar also asserted: “We will stand by Sri Lanka in this hour of need and are confident that Sri Lanka will overcome the challenges that it currently faces.”
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