“There are partnerships based on principle and there are partnerships based on pragmatism. I believe we are at a juncture when we can embark on a partnership that can draw both on principle as well as pragmatism. We must build on this opportunity.”

India should continue its strategy of high level dialogue with China in trying to resolve outstanding issues and explore new avenues of co-operation.

To convince China of the mutual advantages of such a relationship we should call on it to:

• Recollect and learn from its own history. (The circumstances and final outcomes of the Treaties of NANJING and TIANJIN etc) where one Party sought to gain, in the short term, inequitable advantages and dominance through a Policy of short sighted Military adventurism. The results of such Policies in any case would only be risky & uncertain.
• Recollect and learn from its Military misadventure in Vietnam.
• Understand that living in a ‘Glass House’ as it does, with unrest in much of its Western, Southern and even some Central provinces, it should not expect, that its efforts to support and encourage militancy and insurgency in India by itself or by Pakistan or Maoists, will continue to be borne by India without any sort of retaliation. It should stop all such efforts lest it leads to India encouraging and supporting similar efforts in China’s provinces, with far more disturbing and disastrous effects.
• Recall  the offer made at New Delhi in 1960 by their then Prime Minister Chou – En – Lai –

“You keep what you hold, you take anything that is in dispute and occupied by neither, and we keep what we hold”,

and to arrive at  a mutual understanding and mutual accommodation, to avoid conflict over what Pandit Nehru himself, in the Parliament in 1959, described as an ill-demarcated and disputed boundary, even though by 1960, Pandit Nehru had changed his mind and refused to even consider the Chinese offer, let alone recognize it as a pragmatic one. Perhaps it is now time for both countries to reconsider.

• Recall that even after the 1962 conflict India’s Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the Government of India continued magnanimously and as a matter of Principle to press the case for the admission of the Peoples Republic of China into the United Nations and into the Security Council in lieu of the Republic of China (Taiwan), even
  • at the cost to its own membership into the Security Council as then being advocated by the USA and other Members. Perhaps it is now time for China to show a similar supportive and reciprocal attitude when India is now seeking Permanent Membership into the Security Council for itself.
  • Recall the spirit behind the declaration of the Principles of ‘Panchsheel’ and seek to work together in that spirit to resolve all pending disputes and issues.
  • Learn from the history of Empires across the World, especially from that of Ancient India- across South Asia from Indonesia to Indo-China, where Cultural and Economic bonds have led to longer lasting and better valued relationships.
  • Understand what Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler write in their book, ‘Abundance’. – Take a more comprehensive world view about the real reasons for conflict. Today, the exponential progress in technologies such as, artificial intelligence, robotics, infinite computing, ubiquitous broad band networks, digital manufacturing, nano materials, synthetic biology and many others, make it possible to shortly be able to meet many of the basic needs of every man, woman and child on the planet, it would be more practical and economical for China, as the manufacturing hub of the world, and India as a leader in Information and Computer Technologies and Services, to work together in a spirit of cooperation, to attain to a state of ‘abundance’ for both our peoples at the soonest.

  Such a relationship would become an example to the world of the ‘Asian way’ of settling conflicts, taking a long term view and seeking a ‘Win-Win’ solution and would demonstrate how two ancient civilizations, now powerful Nations, can find better ways of working together to not only benefit themselves but also all the neighbouring Countries and indeed even the World.

  To those who still think otherwise, we call on them to read and understand this old Chinese story from the internet;

  A farmer in ancient China had a neighbour who was a hunter, and who owned ferocious and poorly trained hunting dogs. They jumped the fence frequently and chased the farmer’s lambs. The farmer asked his neighbour to keep his dogs in check, but this cry fell on deaf ears.

  One day the dogs again jumped the fence and attacked and severely injured several of the farmer’s lambs.

  The farmer had had enough, and went to town to consult a judge who listened carefully to the story and said: “I could punish the hunter and instruct him to keep his dogs chained or lock them up. But you would lose a friend and gain an enemy. Which would you rather have, friend or foe for a neighbour?”

  The farmer replied that he preferred a friend.

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