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With less than a month to go before Prime Ministers of India and China are expected to meet post the NSG fiasco, the two countries have decided to set up a dialogue mechanism at the level of the foreign secretaries for the first time.
The decision to set up a new mechanism at the level of foreign secretaries was taken during a meeting between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who was on a three-day visit to India.
“A new mechanism at the level of Foreign Secretaries agreed to discuss ties. It's a new mechanism so earlier mechanisms remain,” said an official who was present in the talks.
The Foreign Secretary-level talks will be a new mechanism that will encompass all bilateral issues between both countries. This will be over and above the Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) that both sides already have in place, sources told BusinessLine .
However, the SED last met in 2014 and there had been not much headway in the talks between both sides when it came to issues such as India’s membership at the Nuclear Suppliers Group, defence cooperation between both the military establishments, rising trade deficit and shrinkage in India exports to China among others.
As a result, both countries have now decided to set up this new mechanism keeping in mind India’s decision to join the NSG, whereas China is obstinate that India takes a position on the South China Sea (SCS) issue.
In fact, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang made it explicit that India takes a stand on the SCS when he came to India.
According to sources, the dates for the meeting between both foreign secretaries have not yet been decided, but it seems this might take place post Modi’s visit to China to attend the G20 Summit where he will be meeting his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang on the sidelines.
Last week, a state-run Chinese daily had threatened that if India focuses on the South China Sea tensions, then it might have adverse impact in both countries’ economic and business ties.
However, according to experts, such a mechanism might not yield the desired results.
“This is going to be another institution without any concrete results. We already have the SED and there is also a separate channel for the border talks to take place. What will the new mechanism contribute remains to be seen. Nothing dramatic is expected to come out of it. China is basically resorting to coercive diplomacy. They want us to support their stance on the South China Sea issue, and only then will they support India’s NSG bid. They are trying to arm-twist us,” said Srikanth Kondapalli, Professor in Chinese Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
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