`US trying to upset global strategic equilibrium'

[Ulhas Joglekar]

19 January 2000
`US trying to upset global strategic equilibrium'
The Times of India News Service
PUNE: Charting a blueprint for stronger Sino-Indian relations, Chinese
ambassador to India Zhou Gang on Tuesday accused the US of trying to upset
the international strategic equilibrium and establish a unipolar world under
its own domination.
Gang said that while a multi-polar world was in the interest of all
developing nations, the Cold War mentality continued to linger with
hegemonism and power politics threatening world peace and security.
``By making use of its superiority in the economic, scientific,
technological and military fields, the lone superpower is trying hard to
upset the international strategic equilibrium and establish a unipolar world
under its domination,'' Mr Gang charged.
He was addressing a national seminar on ``Challenges in the Changing
Millennium'' organised by the Indian Institute of Modern Management.
Gang said that even as north-south contradictions were increasing sharply,
the mushrooming growth in knowledge industries and information technology
were opening new opportunities for development.
The developing nations, however, faced more challenges than opportunities
and were additionally burdened with the pressures of regional disputes,
ethnic conflicts and continuing dominance of some major powers.
``The development of global multi-polarisation will be a long, tortuous and
incremental process,'' Gang said while speaking of the challenges emnating
from the old order.
Speaking on Sino-Indian relations, Gang acknowledged that the boundary
dispute between the two nations had cast its shadow on bilateral relations.
While China was committed to resolving the dispute gradually and peacefully,
greater interaction at various levels between the two nations was needed, he
said.
``The Chinese side holds that while being actively engaged in seeking a
solution of the boundary issue, both sides should strive to develop
relations in various fields and promote mutual understanding and trust so as
to create favourable conditions and atmosphere for the final solution to the
issue,'' Gang said.
He called for stronger trade ties between the two nations, greater
partnership in the international fora and a continuing emphasis on the
``Panchsheel'' accord.
``As two big multi-national countries, China and India are facing the
arduous task of maintaining national unity, opposing the interference of
foreign forces into their internal affairs,'' and the ploy by foreign powers
of using human rights to prevent peaceful development. He said that the two
nations were planning a major celebration on April 1 to commemorate the 50th
anniversary of Sino-Indian diplomatic relations.
``Both sides attach great importance to it and are planning to celebrate it
with a series of functions so as to push the Sino-Indian relations onto a
new stage at the turn of the century,'' he said.

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