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Free Press Journal, April 5, 2013
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Getting down to ‘ BRICS’ tacks
Inder
Malhotra
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WHILE the
latest summit of BRICS - Brazil,
Russia, India, China
and South Africa - was
on at Durban, South Africa, last week, there
seemed to be nothing unusual about the proceedings.
It was
business as usual. Since the main item on the agenda was the formation of a
BRICS bank as the global South's answer to the World Bank and the IMF that
are unashamedly pro- West and neglectful of the developing countries, there
was broad support for it. However, refreshingly, there were thoughtful
voices of caution: the objective was worthy, but BRICS must go about it
slowly.
Similarly,
the Durban conclave was on firm footing in
demanding that while peace must be brought back to civil wartorn Syria,
Syrian sovereignty must be respected.
To dig our
toes on this is vital. Because the Western nations - America leading from the rear, and Britain, France
and Turkey
up front, are raring to intervene on ' humanitarian grounds,' and this must
not be allowed.
Such
altruistic tear- shedding often cloaks ignoble motives, as we helplessly
witnessed in Libya.
At that time, we had voted for the western resolution in the UN Security
Council, while Russia
and China
had abstained. Never again should such a mistake be made. Nations living
under the southern sun have to act independently and against neo- colonial
policies of the major western powers that led George W Bush to launch the
totally illegitimate war on Iraq
in 2003. Its catastrophic consequences are now unfolding themselves in the
luckless country on the war's 10th anniversary.
Sadly, the
highly negative side of the summit at Durban
got known rather late, indeed well after the top leaders of the five
countries had returned home. The villain of the peace was the host
country's president, Jacob Zuma. Not to put any gloss on the ugly
situation, he treated Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a man of impeccable
manners, most shabbily. In the first place, he showed us our place by
making Dr. Singh stay in a country house 40 miles away from the summit
venue, while the other four leaders stayed in Durban's best hotels.
And then,
to add injury to insult, he found no time to see the leader of India,
again having met the other four. What must have rubbed salt into the Indian
wound was that Zuma spent a whole day kow- towing to China's new
leader, i Jinping.
Ostentatiously,
the two countries signed no fewer than 16 agreements. Next only to i, the
recipient of Zuma's attention was President Putin of Russia.
Regrettably,
the President of South Africa, holding the office that the noble Nelson
Mandela did, has shown himself to be an uncouth individual in a high
position.
If he has
any grudges against India,
he should have discussed them with Dr.
Singh that
he chose not to do. However, we must admit our own faults and failures.
The
fundamental reality is that in today's world, power speaks, and it is
economic power that commands the highest respect. " It's the economy,
stupid," are the four wisest words uttered in recent years.
Time was
when the world respected ' rising India.' That era appears to
have ended.
By
comparison, China's
economic power is continuing to rise exponentially, which is what gives Beijing enormous clout even vis- Ã - vis the United States that has shifted its ' pivot'
to East Asia.
When at a
public meeting in Delhi, the then US defence secretary Leon Panetta had said
that India
was the ' lynchpin' in the American pivot in the Indo- Pacific region, he
was exaggerating needlessly. But it is true that Indian and American
interests in East Asia converge, though not in the way America
would want. India can at
best be a strategic partner of the US,
not its ally, as Japan, South Korea and particularly Australia
are. India likes to
safeguard its ' strategic autonomy,' which accounts for formations like
BRICS and this country's obvious decision to befriend all other powers such
as Russia, Japan,
European Union and others.
With China also, this country wants to maintain
good, cooperative relations, knowing that friendship with China is a
different matter altogether. In this context, there are three outstanding
realities that are essentially troubling. First, China
does not consider India
to be its equal. Secondly, the gap between the economic and military power
of China and India is
great and growing. The era when we could talk of " catching up"
with China
is gone.
Thirdly, China's
strategic interests and pursuits will always impinge on Indian strategic
interests, and even security. Beijing's '
all- weather' friendship with Pakistan,
especially its nuclear and missile help to Islamabad, is a daunting instance in
point.
In more
recent days, South Africa,
like the rest of the world, has witnessed the tiny Maldives insult and defy mighty India.
China's encouragement to
it was manifest.
It is now
encouraging Sri Lanka
that is thoroughly unhappy with India over the Tamil rights and
the UNHRC resolution on the subject.
This said,
one must hasten to add that things are never simple or clear- cut. Few
things are more complex than the India- China relationship. If, on the one
hand, mighty China is India's
largest and most powerful adversary, one the other, it is this country's
biggest trading partner and economic relations between them are expanding.
Since 1962,
there has been no military conflict between the two Asian giants.
But China
has shown no inclination to settle the boundary question or even to
delineate where exactly lies the Line of Actual Control, along which the
two countries are committed to maintain ' peace and tranquillity.' To make
matters worse, all too often, China asserts its claims on the
entire Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh aggressively.
In short, India has to maintain eternal vigilance on
what China
intends to do.
Even more
importantly, Delhi
has to make sure that its current deterrence against a renewed Chinese
military misadventure must always keep pace with the constantly rising
Chinese military power. On the Himalayan border, China has impressive offensive
capability. We have none.
However, in
maritime power, we have an enviable advantage over them. The Indian Navy,
much praised by all, has a sway in the Indian Ocean right up to the choke
point of Malacca Strait, through which passes the bulk of Chinese energy
supplies.
But the
Chinese efforts to overtake us in this respect also are huge and fast.
We have got
to take counter- measures.
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