China moots first-ever maritime dialogue with India, Panchsheel diamond jubilee
Sandeep Unnithan New Delhi, February 15, 2014 | UPDATED 08:01 IST
China's state councilor Yang Jeichi.
The proposals were conveyed by China's state councilor Yang Jeichi's delegation when they visited New Delhi between February 10-11. China has also suggested joint celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Panchsheel by both countries and a specific code of conduct to avoid flare-ups on the boundary.
Jeichi was in Delhi for the 17th annual dialogue of the Special Representatives of India and China. Jeichi discussed these new proposals in the two-day talks with National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon. They are part of a series of steps taken by both countries to ease tensions beginning last year.
Last year Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Premier Li Keqiang signed a Border Defence Cooperation agreement that would enhance coordination between both armies that patrol a contentious 4000-km border.
Top Indian officials are studying the proposal for the maritime exchanges and the code of conduct. It is, however, unclear how India will respond to the proposal for the Panchsheel celebrations. The five principles of peaceful co-existence were signed by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his Chinese counterpart Chou en Lai in Beijing on April 29, 1954. The agreement collapsed when China fought a short and bitter border war with India in October 1962.
Interestingly, while the five principles - mutual respect for each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty, mutual non-aggression, mutual non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit and peaceful coexistence - formed the basis of agreements in 1993, the word Panchsheel itself was never used.
China is clearly keen on the celebrations being part of the China-India year of friendly exchanges' that Jeichi launched with vice-president Hamid Ansari in Delhi on February 11. China also requested state visits by India's President Pranab Mukherjee and Vice-president Ansari, decisions that are now likely to be taken only by the next government that comes to power in Delhi.
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