Frozen Turbulence

If President Narayanan was hoping to get a commitment from Beijing on a speedy resolution of the border dispute, he must have been disappointed. In talks with President Jiang Zemin, he brought up the subject, only to be told resolving such difficult historical disputes needs time and patience from both sides. Jiang said China had resolved most of its other border disputes, including with Russia, the Central Asian republics and Vietnam, and there was no reason why it couldn't be done with India too. Rushing it, Premier Zhu Rongji agreed, would serve no purpose.

Under an agreement signed in 1993, both sides are committed to delineating the line of actual control as early as possible, but 13 meetings of the Joint Working Group on the border question and other technical sub-groups have failed to make much headway. The Indian position is that China continues to illegally occupy 38,000 sq km of Indian territory in Kashmir, besides the 5,180 sq km ceded by Pakistan to China. Beijing, on its part, lays claim to 90,000 sq km of territory in Arunachal, and is yet to recognise Sikkim as an Indian state. "We need to resolve this soon, before we move to other areas, this is the biggest hurdle in our relationship. All other issues, including China's problem with our nuclear tests, can be resolved easily afterwards," remarked an Indian official accompanying the president. "Right now, all we are asking is that the two sides exchange maps on the lac. But somehow, the Chinese don't seem in a hurry," he added.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman had a different view. "Look at it this way. India and Pakistan can't agree to talks simply because Pakistan insists Kashmir has to be discussed first. India feels other things can be discussed and Kashmir can wait. Yet, like Pakistan, India is now telling us the border dispute must be resolved before other issues can be taken up, why?" An observer, who has attended some jwg meetings, says the Chinese possibly feel they have a handle on us here. But then, we too have potential leverage in the form of the Dalai Lama, so perhaps we cannot just blame Beijing for not being in a hurry.

Among other ticklish issues, China remained non-committal on supporting India's claim to a permanent seat in a revamped UN Security Council. As for the nuclear issue, India's happiness that China did not bring up the question of Security Council article 1172 that calls for a roll-back of India's n-programme was shortlived. A day after the Indian side touted this as a subtle change, the Chinese foreign office issued an official demurral: "Our position on article 1172 remains unchanged."

No progress was made on Beijing's continued nuclear assistance to Islamabad either. While the Indian side kept reiterating that China's relationship with Pakistan should not be at the expense of New Delhi, Beijing made it clear that while India was a "friend", Pakistan was a "good friend".

And Beijing doesn't desert good friends.