Humans at 60 years of age, across civilizations, personify maturity, peace and wisdom.  Nations at 60 are seen as still young, full of energy, enthusiasm and driving for excellence.  This presents an interesting combination for China and India to revisit, re-envision and reformulate their bilateral relations as they celebrate 60 years of their diplomatic recognition that was formally accorded by India to China on 1 April 1950.  Both sides have planned a series of events that will continue throughout this year and these should bring positive synergy to the Chindia paradigm that has suffered frequent demarches given the spate of irritants in China-India relations during recent times.

India’s Foreign Minister, S M Krishna, is visiting China during 5-8 April to launch these year-long cultural celebrations as part of the Festival of India in China. These efforts seek to frontload their cultural interface which remains the unique strength of both China and India.  The Indian Foreign Minister’s visit will also involve several official engagements including meetings with China’s Premier Wen Jiabao and Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.  This may be Krishna’s first visit to China yet he and Yang Jiechi have been meeting frequently on the sidelines of various international meetings and the two have come to develop certain chemistry in their personal equation.  Krishna has come to be recognized in China as a ‘calming influence’ on Sino-India relations. 

This visit by India’s Foreign Minister will also include the 14th round of China-India Special Representatives which is expected to make some head start after a long jam.  The two Special Representatives had signed their last agreement way back in April 2005. Starting from China-India interactions during the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, there has been a positive upturn in their relations. Also, India will now be represented by new National Security Advisor and well-known China-hand and former Ambassador to China, Shivshankar Menon. 

Meanwhile in New Delhi, the 1st of April is being celebrated by Chinese Ambassador, Zhang Yan, and India’s National Security Advisor, Shivshankar Menon, by inaugurating a Conference on “China and India: Public Diplomacy, Better Understanding” at the Indian Council of World Affairs. This conference on the 1st of April is being attended by several scholars from China and India.  Similarly, India has planned cultural events for show-casing India in 33 Chinese cities.  This cultural bonding will cement their mutual friendship and create cushion to soak any future fluctuations in their political equations.  Besides, as China and India begin to emerge as global players, they will become increasingly dependent on their social moorings and cultural heritage to make any value addition to the extant western dominated global deliberations, evidenced by their role played at the Copenhagen Climate Conference and their rising contribution to global trade.

As part of a series of related events exploring various facets of Chindia, New Delhi’s Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS) and China People’s Association for Peace and Disarmament (CPAPD) held a two day Conference on ‘Developing a More Propitious Framework for China-India Cooperation’ in Beijing during 27-28 March.  The first part of the three-pronged project has developed full-length papers on strengthening military confidence, building measures on land, and, maritime sectors, to be published before the end of this year.  Supported by the MacArthur Foundation’s Asian Initiative, this Conference was aimed at exploring ways to sustain and strengthen the processes by which China and India can cooperate on the key challenges affecting their bilateral relations and involve their smaller neighbours in their economic growth.

In addition to this conference, this six member delegation from India (including this author) and other leading China specialists and Indian Strategic analysts from the IPCS held interactions with major foreign and security policy think-tanks of Beijing including China Institute of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), China Institute of International Studies (CIIS) and China Foundation for International and Strategic Studies (CFISS) and also interacted with officials of Indian Embassy in Beijing including the Ambassador.  The overall mood of these deliberations seemed upbeat about taking bilateral relations forward and in spite of minor differences in interpretations; the irritations of last year (especially over border incursions and the Dalai Lama) seemed clearly a thing of the past.  Afghanistan was repeatedly discussed as a major concern for both sides and both sides underlined the need for developing a common vision on the Af-Pak theatre.  Other than this conference, a group of Indian senior journalists were also visiting Beijing last week while the Indian Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) hosted in New Delhi, a meeting with a large Chinese business delegation, led by Vice Premier Hui Hiangyu.

Coinciding with the Indian Foreign Minister’s visit to China and keeping with the positive momentum, the New Delhi-based Association of Asian Scholars (AAS) is organizing on 5th and 6th April, another two-day conference which is being hosted in Shanghai by Fudan University’s the School of International Studies. This exercise is supported by Bangkok-based Asian Scholarship Foundation (ASF) and its deliberations will be on the theme of ‘Debating Multilateralism in Asia’. This conference is being attended by experts from China, India and Southeast Asian countries. All this is likely to provide a great boost for synergizing China-India relations.