Wen Jiabao's South Asian Sojourn

Substantial, far-reaching and continuing changes constitute the milieu in which India–China relations are being recast and forged anew. In retrospect, all previous visits by Chinese premiers have represented a decisive and substantial perceptual and paradigmatic transformation in India–China relations. The April 2005 South Asia visit by the Chinese premier must also be placed in the context of a deepening economic and strategic engagement with the South Asian region. This is also in keeping with China's policy of ‘good neighbourliness’ on which it has laid so much stress, over the last decade and a half. Such a formulation though, can prevent one from seeing that there are different nuances to China's relations with each of the smaller countries of South Asia. India's centrality in the region is however evident. The relationship is now multilayered and operating at many different levels. The Joint Statement signed during the visit described the India–China relationship as a ‘strategic and cooperative partnership for peace and prosperity’, the precise nature of which is yet to evolve. In the economic and commercial fields, the advances have been quite remarkable, raising expectations of even greater increases. India–China cooperation in other regional and global theatres has in-built ambiguity. Both sides need to clarify these ambiguities as they move towards the realisation of the ‘strategic and cooperative partnership for peace and prosperity’.