Sikkim on the map

Although it was expected for a long time, China’s correction of its official maps to include Sikkim as part of India is a welcome step....

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Although it was expected for a long time, China’s correction of its official maps to include Sikkim as part of India is a welcome step. This is in keeping with the growing ties between the two countries, a process that was given a notable boost during Prime Minister Vajpayee’s visit to China last year. In fact, it was during that visit that Beijing made it clear that it considers Sikkim a part of India. Even earlier there were enough indications that it would accept this reality since it was willing to establish border trading posts on the Sikkim-Tibet border. Such posts, by definition, denote the administrative control, if not their sovereignty, of the nations involved. The devil as usual was in the detail with respect to the exact location of these posts. And this was essentially sorted out by the time the prime minister had travelled to China.

The real significance of the depiction of Sikkim as part of India in China’s official maps is that it indicates the willingness of China — and India — to work on the basis of reality. The cynics might say that the Chinese shift of position is just a gesture, and that we may have conceded too much by the inflection of language on Tibet. But we need to remember that both countries have come a long way during the 15 years since Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi made his historic visit to China, which had triggered a new paradigm in bilateral relations. Both countries had systematically followed up on the process since then and not allowed any specific points of divergence in style or substance to disrupt it.

China and India need a sustained period of peace to focus on their socio-economic development. As they keep working together on a range of issues, they are also acquiring a new respect for each other. What is more, they are beginning to recognise the convergences and divergences in their national interests; and that the former far outweigh and outnumber the latter. Taken to its logical conclusion, the Sikkim issue should open up new opportunities in future. For example, China had built the Karakoram highway from its Sinkiang province through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir to Islamabad in territory that its own treaty of 1963 with Pakistan recognised as disputed. The Sino-Indian frontier in J&K has, of course, to be settled between the two Asian giants. Demarcation of the Line of Actual Control is critical to future peace and stability, and must be expedited. Meanwhile, a trading post at undisputed points like the Karakoram Pass in Ladakh would be another way of working for the future on the basis of current reality in a way that does not impact negatively on the national interest of either country.