[lbo-talk] "India not part of any design to contain China"

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The Hindu
http://www.hinduonnet.com/

Tuesday, Aug 29, 2006

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"India not part of any design to contain China"
http://www.hindu.com/2006/08/29/stories/2006082905611200.htm

Amit Baruah

U.S.-China conflict unlikely: Saran

China likely to become India's biggest trading partner
Need for closer economic, transport links

NEW DELHI: Any kind of containment by the United States and China of the
"other" would be a painful exercise for both countries, Foreign Secretary
Shyam Saran said here on Monday.

Inaugurating a background programme for diplomatic correspondents at the
Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), Mr. Saran said he did not see any
"major confrontation" between the nations on the horizon.

He joined issue with analysts who felt that a conflict between the U.S. and
China was inevitable.

Rejecting the notion that India was part of any design to contain China, he
pointed out that trade with Beijing stood at over $18 billion and that China
was likely to become India's largest trading partner by 2010, if the present
trends continued.

Economic relationship

Pointing to the huge gap in Indo-U.S. trade ($25 billion) and China-U.S.
trade ($250 billion), he said China today was financing the American deficit
with its purchase of U.S. Treasury securities.

Unlike the Cold War period when engagement between the U.S. and the then
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was limited, he said both the U.S. and
China had huge stakes in continuing their economic relationship.

On energy security, he conceded that the continued reliance on fossil fuels
would mean a "scramble" between India and China for the limited oil and gas
reserves.

However, to "avoid too much competition," the countries were cooperating
with each other, as demonstrated in Sudan and Syria. Many other such
ventures were in the pipeline.

Presenting a broad review of India's relationships, he said New Delhi did
not favour the creation of a separate state in Sri Lanka. In response to
questions, he said, "We have not accepted that the LTTE is the sole champion
of Tamil interests."

"Big stakes" in Sri Lanka

Maintaining that India had very "big stakes" in Sri Lanka, he said India had
not joined the "co-chairs' process" because its "sensitive relationship"
with Colombo "does not lend itself to group responses as envisaged by the
co-chairs."

He said war was not a solution to the ethnic problem there. According to
him, India could not afford a "hands-off" attitude towards Sri Lanka as New
Delhi had too much at stake.

Mr. Saran, who favoured closer economic and transport links in South Asia,
told the correspondents that the Indo-Sri Lanka free trade agreement was a
model for other nations.

He said the Government was unable to make a sober assessment of the
hijacking of flight IC-814 in December 1999 on account of the tremendous
pressure applied by the media, which repeatedly highlighted the concerns of
family members.

On terrorism

The international community could not take a segmented view of terrorism. An
approach that put the Al-Qaeda and the Taliban at the top of the list would
not prove successful. On India-Pakistan relations, he said India believed in
a cooperative vision of South Asia.

Copyright � 2006, The Hindu.