Nepal Foreign Affairs (KATHMANDU, 17 August) – Chinese newspaper Global Times has said that India’s South Asian policy of controlling those small countries is ”outdated” and suppressing their sovereignity can not last.
In its editorial, the newspaper, has also urged New Delhi to update its policy to the neighbourhood and form the policy that can address and accomodate the changing global diplomatic balance. The editorial has come at time when the Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang was busy in meetings Nepali leaders and delegations and New Delhi was expressing its anxiety over successful oucome of the visit.
The editorial reads ”New Delhi’s concerns about South Asian countries developing ties with other major powers are distorted, as its understanding of South Asia no longer fits with the new era. After the withdrawal of British colonists, India became the dominant power of the region. During the Cold War era, major powers were engaged in rivalries in other regions and had no time for India’s regional hegemony.”
As the world is globalizing, South Asian countries are reviving. India’s outdated mentality of controlling those small countries and suppressing their sovereignty cannot last, the newspaper has said.
Economic and social development is the core interest of all countries, and expanding foreign exchanges is the precondition for development. The overwhelming significance of geopolitics in international relations has been diluted. Most of the time, it is not the primary concern of inter-state relations. India’s neighboring small countries develop ties with China out of goodwill and Beijing does not target any third party. But India’s old-fashioned mind-set sees these non-political relations through a geopolitical lens.
India does not allow Bhutan to establish diplomatic ties with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. This arbitrary act has no logic at all on the world stage. Neither Bhutan nor Nepal is willing to accept such abnormal controls by India. India should abandon its Cold War and regional hegemonic mentalities so it can see a great number of opportunities from a rapidly developing China instead of viewing China as a threat. And it would not feel a sense of crisis simply because China is building a road along the border and therefore send troops to trespass on Chinese territory and obstruct Chinese construction, read the editorial.
India is so narrow-minded that it believes a road along the border can determine the strategic posture between China and India.India views the small South Asian countries as its backyard, which proves that it lacks global vision. Even the US would not intervene when Latin American countries developed ties with the outside world. Russia didn’t oppose the global diplomacy of former Soviet republics.
India should reflect on its attitude toward small South Asian countries and the outside world. It should be open-minded rather than viewing the world as full of dangers and challenges.No major power is interested in making India its enemy or playing zero-sum geopolitical games with it. The small countries in the southern Himalayas have the right to develop friendly ties with China and India at the same time and it will not jeopardize the interests of either side.