WASHINGTON: Despite the disagreements that comes to the fore now and then due to some regional issues, the World has got an example in India-China relationship who treat other as ‘frenemies’, Top Diplomat representing India at United Nations has said.
“In Hollywood there is a term, which has become quite popular. And that, I think, is called frenemies. That’s what we have with China. We engaged with them, we compete with them. In some areas we work with them together and in some areas we agree to disagree and move on”, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Syed Akbaruddin said in Washington on Tuesday.
While responding to a question after he delivered the inaugural Ambassador Howard Schaffer Memorial Lecture at the Georgetown University, the senior Indian diplomat told the audience that India has engaged with China on its development initiatives like Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank or AIIB but opposed it on its Belt and Road initiative.
“Belt and Road Initiative, to me, is not a normal multilateral or plurilateral approach. We are not party to that,” he said at the event which was organized by the Georgetown India Initiative.
India neither supported nor did it take part in China’s high-profile Belt and Road Forum last year due to its sovereignty concerns over the USD 50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor or CPEC, which passes through PoK.
Termed as Chinese President Xi Jinping’s biggest project, the One Belt One Road initiative tries to improve connectivity and cooperation among Asian countries, Africa, China and Europe.
Asked about his views on current India-Pakistan relationship and Islamabad raising the Kashmir issue on UN platform again and again and seeking a plebiscite, he asserted that Pakistan itself has no internal support on this.
“Frankly to me, issues of India and Pakistan, the way you framed it are yesterday’s problems. This does not mean that we don’t need to address them,” he said, responding to a question.
“This does not mean that they are not of a serious nature. But in terms of where we look at ourselves 20 years from now or 25 years from now, we don’t see these as issues of a nature which will destabilise us in fundamental ways, Mr Akbaruddin said, adding that in the last one year not a single country joined Pakistan in raising the Kashmir issue at the UN General Assembly.
“How come, other than the 13 times, Pakistan spoke, not one other country spoke. So is this today’s issue? It’s clear that others are not bothered about. The world has too many other issues to focus on. India and Pakistan need to address these as neighbors,” he said.
While China and India are frenemies, he said, others can learn very much from the relationship between the two countries.
“Perhaps what others can learn from our relationship is that despite a border that is the longest un-demarcated border in world, there hasn’t been casualties on that border since the last 40 years,” he added.
“If our western neighbor can also look at that as a model — we agree to disagree, we try and workout, if it doesn’t work, we continue to push out own interest. But the way of trying to resolve it through underhand death that by a thousand cuts is not going to help. We are a billion people. With thousand cuts, you would not reach a billion. So it’s best if we reconciled to each other,” he further said.