Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao today met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and signalled that while officials chipped away at the boundary dispute, one issue really mattered: raising trade between the two countries from its current level of $12 billion a year to the region of $100 billion.On the boundary dispute, Wen said its resolution could take some time. When Singh reminded him that even the Berlin Wall had come down, the Chinese Premier, who’s due to visit New Delhi next March, had a suggestion: Why don’t we have in place by then the political parameters to resolve the dispute? Wen asked for more business-to-business contacts to which Singh readily agreed. And, in a personal gesture, Wen shook hands with National Security Advisor J N Dixit, hoping he could work out a framework to settle the boundary dispute. Wen also told Singh: ‘‘The handshake between you and me will catch the attention of the entire world.’’ The prospect of hitching a ride on a growing Indian economy seems to make everyone more accommodating. In India’s case, Asean’s turnaround has been acute. Four days ago, its secretary-general had suggested that India was not moving quickly enough on its proposed free trade agreement with the region. But yesterday, Asean leaders tripped over each other to congratulate Singh. Just what is changing equations here? ‘‘I don’t want to boast about myself because I am leading a government,’’ said Singh, visibly embarrassed. So External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh said it for him: Leaders had said their faith in India had gone up since Singh took over. Of course, there was a more fundamental reason. By consistently chalking up a growth rate in the region of 7 per cent, India had become the economy that everyone wanted to work with. China was quite blunt about this. ‘‘When I spoke to the Chinese Prime Minister about his plans to visit India, he said it is the most important item on my agenda in 2005,’’ said Singh. These may just be words, but words between China and India are carefully calibrated. In fact, when J N Dixit, who has seen it all, was asked if this was the kind of meeting he would like to see with Pakistan, he responded: ‘‘There is no mutual paranoia now with China.’’ The two countries sought to downplay their boundary dispute. Tibet, which India has acknowledged as a part of China, was not discussed. Sikkim, where China has quietly started accepting Indian rule, came up only obliquely as the Chinese premier agreed that his country had already taken a decision on the subject and it would be implemented gradually. Only Arunachal Pradesh, where China still officially claims 90,000 sq km as its own, saw some nuanced byplay. Wen said that any solution should be based on ‘‘mutual understanding and accommodation’’. To this Singh responded that while the understanding should be complete, the accommodation should be based on ‘‘ground realities’’. Read: Indian control. ‘‘Wen said that the delay in finding a solution should not slow down our engagement in other fields,’’ said Dixit. ‘‘He said trade between the two countries was way below potentialities and should increase.’’ On the sidelines of the Asean summit, where India made its pitch today by signing a partnership document, the two leaders needed to make a few points following a somewhat curious incident that had nothing to do with either. Malaysia announced an East Asian Summit in Kuala Lumpur next year and added it would include Asean and its three dialogue partners — China, Japan and South Korea. But hardly had the statement gone out when some other Asean countries, who feared that their own identity would be lost in such a grouping, started protesting. Result: A meeting will take place but the Asean chairman had to revise his statement and remove all mention of Asean plus three. Inadvertently, this suits India which has been pushing the idea of an Asian economic community without getting tangled in Asean politics.
