India and China can be good for each other but Beijing must reassure its neighbours, former Indian diplomat says
- S. Jaishankar was India’s foreign secretary and served as New Delhi’s envoy in Beijing from 2009-13
- He says a rebalancing of power away from the West is under way and India and China should not allow themselves to be pitted against each other
China and India must not allow outside powers to “play them off” against each other as anxieties rise in other countries over Beijing’s rapid gains in economic and strategic influence, an Indian senior ex-diplomat said.
Equally the onus is on China to assure “everybody on its street” it poses no threat to the current world order, former Indian foreign secretary S. Jaishankar told the South China Morning Post.
“In many ways, the rise of China is good for India,” said Jaishankar, who served as New Delhi’s envoy in Beijing from 2009-13. “It is motivational, and it has changed the balance between the West and non-West.”
The former diplomat, now president of global corporate affairs at the Indian conglomerate Tata Sons, spoke to the Post on the sidelines of the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore.
“We used to have G7 meetings where India and China would be brought in for one session,” he said. “Absurd. Today there’s a proper G20. The space China has created and India has created have been helpful to each other.”
