China and India's rivalry extends to the Arctic
GURINDER OSAN
FILE - In this
July 5, 2006 file photo, Indian army Capt. Nitesh Sharma, left, poses with
Chinese civilian Chen Xiao, second left, and a Chinese soldier, third right, on
the international border at the Nathu La Pass, in northeastern Indian state of
Sikkim. While the recent troop standoff in a remote Himalayan desert spotlights
a long-running border dispute between China and India, the two emerging giants
are engaged in a rivalry for global influence that spreads much farther afield.
(AP Photo/Gurinder Osan, File)
LOUISE WATT , The Associated Press
BEIJING - While the recent troop standoff in a remote
Himalayan desert spotlights a long-running border dispute between China and
India, the two emerging giants are engaged in a rivalry for global influence
that spreads much farther afield.
From Africa to the Arctic, the world's two most populous
countries are bumping up against each other in their search for resources and
new markets. Their rivalry is spilling over into global diplomacy and
international institutions where Beijing and Delhi have elbow-jabbed over
development loans and a seat for India on the U.N. Security Council.
It is visible in the building of infrastructure in nations
like Ghana, which is rich in gold, cocoa and timber and is a new oil producer.
Ghana's government moved into a presidential palace financed by India in
February. A month later, China handed over a new foreign ministry building.
An outright clash between the two remains unlikely. But
bickering on the global stage could make bodies such as the World Bank and the
United Nations less efficient, and send ripples through institutions that are
increasingly important in guiding global trade, commerce and diplomacy and
influence policies that affect people around the
world.
"They have their tentacles throughout this global
infrastructure," said Ashwin Kaja, an American lawyer leading an initiative to
establish a China-India institute at Beijing's Renmin University and Jindal
University in Sonipat, India. "If they start fighting, the threat becomes bigger
and bigger as their influence grows. They are one third of humanity; it's not a
small figure. They are not just countries."
Though the two nations once celebrated a shared vision as
leaders of developing nations in the 1950s, that amity was shredded by a 1962
border war that still clouds relations. The recent crisis began April 15 when
about 50 Chinese soldiers pitched tents on territory that both countries claim
and set off finger-pointing about territorial grabs.
On Monday, Beijing and New Delhi announced an end to the
three-week standoff, agreeing for troops on both sides to pull back before the
fracas threatened several high-level meetings.
The two governments are publicly trying to put the best
face on relations, accentuating the positive benefits of trade and diplomatic
cooperation. The Indian foreign minister travels to Beijing on Thursday to
prepare for a visit to Delhi later this month by Li Keqiang, his first overseas
trip since becoming Chinese premier in March.
Neither country wants to threaten booming business ties.
China became India's biggest trading partner in 2011 when two-way trade hit
nearly $75 billion, up from $5 billion in 2002. It declined slightly last year
because of the global economic downturn, and it is also heavily skewed in
China's favor. Next month, China will host its first South Asian trade expo,
designed to lure companies from India and elsewhere in the region.
But distrust runs high. China is a longtime ally and
weapons supplier to Pakistan, India's bitter rival, and has been building strong
ties with Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, feeding Indian fears of encirclement.
China is wary of India's growing ties with the United States.
Chinese dam-building on the upper reaches of the
Brahmaputra River has raised fears in India that Beijing might one day reduce or
turn off critical water supplies. A dispute over territorial claims in Arunachal
Pradesh led to Beijing in 2009 trying to block part of a loan to India from the
Asian Development Bank earmarked for a flood control project there.
China was upset in 2011 when India's state oil company, Oil
and Natural Gas Corp., accepted an invitation from Vietnam to explore for oil
and gas in the disputed South China Sea, bringing New Delhi into a festering
territorial spat on China's doorstep.
"You can never avoid flash points," Kaja said. "The U.S.
and China have lots of flash points but the difference I think is that between
the U.S. and China, there is a lot more dialogue ... and those are the kinds of
channels that need to be created."
Their competition extends far beyond their immediate
neighborhoods.
Both are pushing to gain a foothold in the Arctic, where
melting ice is opening passages for shipping and could create a boom in the
extraction of fossil fuels and minerals. Both China and India, along with other
Asian nations and the European Union, have applied for observer status at the
obscure Arctic Council.
"Neither China or India have any basis to claim to be
Arctic nations, but because of the rush for minerals and resources there is a
fear that we will be left behind if we don't also stake our claims in these
distant parts," said Sreeram Chaulia, dean of Jindal's School of International
Affairs.
Both countries are building up their navies to project
influence, and the Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean is expected to grow.
David Shinn, a former U.S. ambassador in Africa, expects China's navy to make
more frequent visits to port cities across the Indian Ocean , in South Asia, the
southern Middle East and on the east coast of Africa , within the next 10 years
and to expand its reach to North African ports on the Mediterranean Sea.
"India will be concerned by a growing Chinese naval
presence in the western Indian Ocean, which it has always considered its
preserve. It has tolerated a significant U.S. presence there, but it has never
considered the U.S. an enemy," said Shinn, who now teaches international affairs
at George Washington University.
This more permanent Chinese presence "will push India to
ensure good military, particularly naval relations, with all the countries in
the western Indian Ocean and along the east African coast," he said.
In the recent border standoff, neither side engaged in much
more than posturing.
"They were just staring at each other. So I guess that in a
way is a metaphor for the relationship," Chaulia said. "There is no way that
India and China can be comrades or brothers and sisters. I don't think we can be
that rosy-eyed. But certainly we can manage the problems."
LOUISE WATT The
Associated Press
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