New Delhi, Sep 14 (IANS) For the Chinese President Xi Jinping, the 25th SCO summit at Tianjin was a special occasion to launch initiatives designed to push the rise of China as a superpower that could more than match America.
Donald Trump’s move to impose ‘punitive’ tariff on India for its oil trade with Russia providing an anti-US backdrop, special invitation extended to President Putin and Kim Jong Un of North Korea to the parade at Tiananmen Square in Beijing on September 3 that was designed to showcase China’s military strength on the 80th anniversary of surrender by Japan in World War II and the clear emergence of China as the acknowledged leader of the axis against the US, provided the right setting for Xi Jinping to boldly present himself as the world leader who could get the better of the US. He presented a world view where China would be the only ‘acceptable’ world power in a multipolar order and counselled India not to remain preoccupied with ‘border issues’ and instead join hands with China as ‘a partner rather than an adversary’ in the pursuit of the larger vision of an equitable and ‘rules -based’ world.
India envisages a multipolar world too but also believes in ‘a multipolar Asia’ clearly setting for itself a position as China’s competitor there and in the South generally. A closer look is required to evaluate Xi Jinping’s special address at the SCO summit, in which he seemed to spell out an ambitious plan of making China the leader of the world.
At the SCO summit, President Xi Jinping unveiled the so- called Global Governance Initiative in which he emphasised Beijing’s readiness to work with all countries for a more just global governance system. He criticised the US without naming it, for harbouring Cold War mentality and practising hegemony and protectionism, and spelt out principles of Global Governance- adherence to sovereign equality, compliance with international rule of law, practice of true multilateralism, advocacy of a people-centric approach and focus on real actions. He stated that all countries, regardless of size, strength and wealth were equal participants in decision- making and equal beneficiaries of global governance.
Ironically, as the President of the only country run on classic Communism that prescribed state ownership of all resources and one-party rule, Xi Jinping called for the promotion of greater democracy in international relations and enhancement of the representation and voice of developing countries. He even invoked civilisational legacies for the cause of world peace. Warning against rules imposed by ‘a few countries’, he favoured the idea of the UN playing a key role in global governance. He wanted the North-South gap to be narrowed and coordination increased for ‘global actions’ with ‘visible outcomes’. Xi Jinping wanted SCO to uphold principles of non-alliance and non-confrontation and seek ‘integration not decoupling’.
Significantly, Xi Jinping urged SCO countries to advance Belt & Road cooperation and push for ‘inclusive economic globalisation’. All of this shows a determined effort of the Chinese President to pursue the route of economic influence to hasten the emergence of China as a superpower countering Trump’s America, while seeking a constant military and technological advancement. He has made SCO a major instrument of reaching the goal of universal acceptability for China- he announced China’s decision to treat 500 patients with congenital heart disease, perform 5000 cataract operations, and carry out 10,000 cancer screenings for SCO countries, to project his country as a benevolent global power.
SCO is now the largest regional organisation in Eurasia. Xi Jinping wanted SCO to stand as ‘a pillar in promoting a multipolar world and strengthening democracy in international relations’. He talked of peaceful coexistence between China and India for the benefit of the Global South. In the background of controversial announcements of President Donald Trump in the name of ‘America First’ that had raised eyebrows of many countries across the geopolitical spectrum, Xi Jinping used the SCO summit to highlight how China stood for human development, improvement in people’s livelihoods and safeguarding of ‘world peace and stability’. China has sensed that a pathway existed for it to become the prime world power because of a certain decline in the global image of Trump’s America.
This image is taking a further hit because of the remarks of spokespersons of President Trump-particularly White House trade advisor Peter Navarro on India’s participation in SCO summit. Trump’s relatively inoffensive response on social media saying ‘ we have lost India, Russia to deep dark China’ was followed by commerce secretary Howard Lumick’s complaint that ‘New Delhi was unwilling to open markets to US exports, stop Russian energy purchases and withdraw from BRICS’ and a totally unacceptable comment of Navarro that trade practices of BRICS were comparable to ‘vultures exploiting the United States’.
Fortunately, it is at the level of President Trump and Prime Minister Modi that the right equation in Indo-US relations was struck in their messages exchanged on September 10 in which US President said he ‘ looked forward to speaking with my very good friend PM Modi and felt certain that there will be a successful conclusion of trade talks between our Great Countries’ and Prime Minister Modi declared that ‘India and US are close friends and natural partners and negotiations between them will unlock the limitless potential of the two countries working together’. The learning here is that sometimes advisors of strong leaders tended to just push ahead with what they thought was the line of their masters and also that on matters of crucial geopolitical importance heads of nations alone could set the diplomatic agenda.
India’s participation in BRICS and SCO brings out the contours of this country’s successful national strategy directly overseen by Prime Minister Modi. India takes due notice of US identifying China -not Russia -as its chief adversary, finds merit in the policy of remaining non -aligned towards world powers while pursuing bilateral relationships with countries -big or small – and advocates the cause of world peace and humanitarian development as a responsible world leader itself. India’s active profile in Quad is proof enough of the side India would take between US and China.
India has confidence that it can handle relations with US and Russia on an even note. India’s belief in a multipolar world order gives it the base for developing its relationships with the spectrum of friends and adversaries at a given point of time. India’s interests lie in not letting the Cold War return and this is what made the Middle East a region of special interest for it. The principal security threat to India is from the Sino-Pak strategic alliance that worked primarily against India but posed a serious threat of terrorism to the world.
The national security strategy of India has to revolve round the ways and means of thwarting the designs of these two adversaries, not letting India-US relationship run into distrust, maintaining friendship with Russia, using international forums to highlight the threat of Islamic Terrorism to the democratic order anywhere, encouraging moves towards democratisation in the Arab states of Middle East and strengthening India’s position in the Global South where China could be acting as a road block.
(The writer is a former Director Intelligence Bureau)
–IANS
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