China and India "Cement Ties" At Copenhagen

In the past few weeks, China and India, the world's two most populous nations, have built a level of international policy cooperation not seen since their 1962 border war, in their determination not to yield national sovereignty at the just-collapsed Copenhangen summit. The two nations' delegations closely coordinated policy both before and during the conference, to the very end.

"The single biggest achievement of Copenhagen has been BASIC," Indian Enviroment Minister Jairam Ramesh told The Hindu today. The BASIC nations are China, India, Brazil and South Africa, which Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao called together in Beijing Nov. 29, to formulate and sign a policy agreement for their strategy at Copenhagen. The nations had agreed then, to walk out of Copenhagen if the developed countries tried to undermine their national interests and non-negotiable policies. In the end, the developed nations had to cave in on the non-negotiables, including that there would be no yielding to international inspections.

Most important is the breakthrough in Chinese-Indian relations. Tensions continue over border issues — a direct legacy of the British Raj in India and its reach into Tibet — and China's close relations with Pakistan. However, joint trade has been growing rapidly in the past decade, and China is now India's largest trading partner. Copenhagen could lay the basis for an new strategic level of joint political and economic relations.

Before the summit began this morning, Wen Jiabao and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held a 30-minute bilateral meeting, which made it clear to both that their nations share a "common perception" on the outcome of the meeting, Singh's special envoy Shyam Saran told the press. "The meeting was very important," Saran said. Not only were both committed to blocking any secret agreement among the Europeans and U.S., but also determined that final agreements must be based on "transparency" and an "inclusive process."

More important in bilateral terms, Wen Jiabao assured Singh during the meeting, that a joint statement he had issued with visiting President Obama in November, which referred to peace in South Asia, was "not directed at India," and that "China did not have any intention to interfere in [India's] region," foreign secretary Nirupama Rao told the press.

Later, China and India staged a walk-out of the Heads of State summit itself, over their objections to a paragraph of the draft then being debated. Earlier in the week, the two nation's delegates had lambasted US special envoy Todd Stern for his targetting of China.

Most revealing was an article in India's Business Standard Dec. 16, based on its exclusive access to a bilateral meeting between China's chief climate envoy Xie Zhenhua and Ramesh. Xie, Vice Chairman of China's National Development and Reform Commission, told Ramesh about the latest "Danish text" being circulated, and that he had information about the rich countries' intentions to use the draft, including a "surprise attack" by Australia and the EU. Ramesh told the Business Standard, that the two sides were meeting up to six times a day at Copenhagen, and then stated to the Times of India that he is "very happy that one of the positive outcomes of Copenhagen is the cementing of ties between India and China."