Jalil Afridi
Washington DC: Shivshankar Menon, former National Security Advisor of India has said that the trust between India and China has been completely destroyed since last May when Chinese military entered India though Golwan and surroundings.
Mr Menon was speaking at an event organized by Hudson Institute in Washington DC. Interesting both the speakers and the moderator of the event were Indians and there was no body from China to speak on its behalf.
Shivshankar Menon said that there are several factors which brought tensions between India and China including, China Pakistan strategic cooperation since 2013, China participating in the internal politics of countries such as Sri Lanka, Nepal, China’s military presence in the Indian Ocean, recent border skirmishes with China and lastly China’s desire for dominance in Asia.
Mr Menon said that peace and tranquility is important for economic stability of both India and China. He said that US and China relations will also play an important role in India and China relations.
Second speaker of the event, Jayadeva Ranade, who is fomer Cabinet Secretary of India said that India and China relations were always of suspicious but things drastically changes to worse when Xi Jinping came into power. Mr Ranade said that Xi Jinping changed China’s relations with the whole world and it wants to surpass the United States which India will not allow.
Mr Jayadeva Ranade was also of the opinion that China’s move on Gama Patra river and in Tipet were also of great concern and it also effected the environment heavily as well. He further said that there is no trust deficit between India and China but rather there is no trust at all and new relations needs to be started with China which has no foundation or trust and is full of suspicion.
Mr Ranade also said that the military action by China last May was well planned and now when the troops of China have pulled back it is also part of their future plans.
Both the speakers did not give a satisfactory answer to the moderator of the event, Miss Dr. Aparna Pande of Hudson institute when she asked whether it was a intelligence failure on part of India when it did not see the chinese build up along the border last May.