Dr. Vedapratap Vaidik*

The current visit of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to India is almost incomprehensible, even for the best of diplomatic brains. It is difficult to interpret the intent of his impromptu trip, given the fact that Wang is not just the Foreign Minister of that country but one of China’s state councilors. During his hasty visit the Chinese leader met our External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. It is mysterious, Wang abruptly landed in New Delhi, after a short stay in Kabul.

 There in Kabul, Wang had some discussions with the Afghan Foreign Minister and other senior officials of the Taliban ruled nation. The Chinese Foreign Minister also had a chitchat with the Russian representative, Kabulov. From New Delhi Wang is scheduled to reach Colombo.

By all probabilities Wang’s multi-nation visit has a definite agenda- to seriously rebuild the dampened image of his country and present it in brightness to the world. His mission is to defuse the rivals’ propaganda that China is solely responsible for the spread of Corona pandemic that created fiscal and physical catastrophe across the globe. China, for sure, will always strive to be acknowledged as the Global super power, equal to US if not one step ahead.

We may never be under the illusion that Wang Yi has come to India to affably resolve the India-China border dispute. If his agenda was to resolve the Sino-India row the Chinese Foreign Minister would have come with prior notice and proper preparations for an effective dialogue. Being a senior member in the Chinese cabinet Wang would have with him a concrete proposal to resolve the issue. But from the course of his conversations with our National Security Advisor Doval who is considered to be the manfriday of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Union Minister for External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar it can be well presumed that the desired objective of the Sino leader’s unscheduled sojourn in India was to dissuade Prime Minister Narendra Modi from boycotting the upcoming BRICS meet. India abstaining from the BRIKS will be a big body blow to China, a country vying to be the global superpower.

That’s the reason when both Jaishankar and Doval raised the border issue and said that without resolving it ties between the two neighbouring nations cannot be back to normal, Wang admitted that his country agreed to what India said and China would continue constructive bilateral talks. Interestingly, Wang was generous to invite Doval to his country.

China’s stand on Ukraine conflict is clear; it is totally opposed to the US, though pretends to be neutral like India. It seems two blocks are being formed –one that of Russia and China and the other consisting of US, NATO, AKUS and Quad.

However, India needs to be vigilant and watchful. We don’t need to be excessively influenced or carried away by America, like Zhelensky. We need to be on our own feet and not to be swayed by those with vested interests. That is why the visiting foreign minister of China and his Indian counterpart reiterated their call to prevent war and protect national sovereignty. Though India had objected to what Wang said in Islamabad on Kashmir the Chinese leader said that India and China have similar views on most of the issues across the globe. Wang believes the mutual trust and cooperation will immensely benefit both the neighbouring nations-India and China. If the words of Chinese President’s Xi Jinping and Foreign Minister Wang Yi are adhered to literally, no doubt, this century will belong to Asia.

*Dr. Vaidik is a widely travelled scholar-journalist. He has visited more than 80 countries on diplomatic and educationalmissions. Dr. Vaidik has won more than a dozen National and International awards for academic and journalistic excellence. He has been a member of several Advisory Committees of Government of India.