Last year saw a record melting of summer sea ice in the Arctic region [Xinhua Images]

China expects to “get benefits out of the developments in research, economic exploitation as well as transport, ” Xing said.

Last year saw a record melting of summer sea ice in the Arctic which has led to a major push by oil and mining companies to drill in Arctic waters, and by Asian countries hoping to cut shipping routes.

“Especially in the transport sector,” he said, “I think in the future it will save time and energy which is very significant for the marine transport between Asia and Europe,” Xing has said in an interview to state media in Helsinki.

He stressed that China will be a very serious member, ”act in a positive way” and will contribute to the peaceful and sustainable development of the Arctic region.

China, India, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea and Singapore were granted new observer status status at the Eighth Ministerial Meeting of the Arctic Council convened in Kiruna, the northernmost city of Sweden.

The new participants, most of whom are Asian countries, do not have voting rights, but are allowed to raise proposals and participate in discussions.

“An observer has limited rights, but anyhow, we would very much like to participate in the discussion in the political arena, and also in scientific research, as well as in the economic field,” Xing said.

At present, only the eight countries of the Arctic Council have a say in setting policy in the region – America, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and Iceland.

Xing admitted it is still uncertain when the sea ice might disappear seasonally, providing easy passage for shipments. “It is very difficult to get that conclusion but anyway the tendency is that some ice has already melted away.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said earlier that China recognizes the Arctic countries’ sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction in the Arctic area, as well as their leading role in the Arctic Council.

The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies

(Getty Images)

Greece has announced inking a deal with China to buy 142 new ships to power its shipping sector.

The Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras recently concluded a four-day state visit to Beijing, trying to woo Chinese investment to the recession-ridden country.

Greek Shipping Minister Kostis Moussouroulis said in Beijing that the orders accounted for more than 60 percent of the recent global orders of Greek shipowners.

The shipping industry, including shipbuilding, is one of the most important sectors for economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.

In the next decade, China will remain an important global exporter and become an increasingly important importer, according to the minister.

The new orders are the investment of Greek shipowners for the future, said Moussouroulis.

Wang Qi, general manager of Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co.,Ltd, said Greece has become an important client of China’s shipbuilding enterprises.

As one of China’s major shipbuilding companies, Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co.,Ltd has built a total of 67 ships for Greek shipowners in recent years, accounting for about 30 percent of the company’s output, Wang said.

Agencies

But what exactly does this “new big power relations” mean for China and India?

The two nations are so close to each other, and yet so unfamiliar. It is almost as if China comes from Mars, and India comes from Venus. China and India share a boundary of more than 2,000 kilometres, separated by the snow-capped Himalayas.

Before Li Keqiang’s visit to India, an age-old boundary dispute in the western Himalayas flared up in mid April, when both India and China moved more troops in the area. Indian external affairs minister Salman Khurshid believes that this boundary standoff is just an “acne than can be addressed by simply applying an ointment”. He is probably correct, yet it makes one wonder at what can only be described as a “juvenile” exercise between two countries, two ancient neighboring civilizations that boast of a five thousand year old history.

Economic cooperation has always been conveniently called in to smooth over border disputes. For those involved in trade and investment, the border dispute is insignificant. Bilateral trade between the two increased from $2.9 billion in 2000 to around $80 billion in 2012.

“Premier Li Keqiang’s visit provides a golden opportunity for both countries to script a fresh and more positive chapter in China-India relations” [Xinhua Images]

China is now the third largest partner for India’s exports and the largest source for India’s imports. India is the seventh largest partner for China’s export and 20th largest partner of India’s imports. Leaders of both countries have confidently proposed the goal of increasing bilateral trade to $100 billion by 2015.

By our estimation, the bilateral trade between China and India may reach $500-700 billion by 2020.

Bilateral investment has, also, increased significantly after 2000. China’s direct investment in India has increased seventeen fold from 2006 to 2011, India’s investment in China also increased rapidly from 2000 to 2008, but declined after the global financial crisis.

The economic relationship between China and India, however, is quite asymmetric. India runs a wide trade deficit with China, which jumped to $27 billion in 2011 from $ 4.3 billion in 2006. And bilateral investment, in particular, is insignificant, considering the two are neighbouring emerging economies.

India’s investment in China is around 0.01-0.05 per cent in China’s overall foreign investment, and China’s investment in India only accounts for around 0.2 per cent in India’s foreign investment. Warring about the increasing trade imbalance with China, India has frequently initiated anti-dumping investigations on imports from China. On the other hand, Chinese companies frequently complain about India’s discriminative policy against Chinese investment.

It is in this perspective that the Chinese Premier’s visit takes centrestage.

Li Keqiang’s Delhi visit provides a golden opportunity for both countries to script a fresh and more positive chapter in China-India relations and must not be squandered away.

It can’t be over-emphasised that the foundations to forge stronger ties between Beijing and New Deli should be based on the comparative advantages of both countries.

China’s manufacturing sector is very competitive, even by international standards. But with rising labour costs in China, and the policy of “going abroad”, which encourages Chinese companies to invest more aggressively in overseas markets, more and more Chinese companies will increase outbound investment.

India can seize this opportunity to encourage Chinese investments. The main benefit of having more Chinese investment, is not acquiring cutting edge technologies, but creating more job opportunities, especially for unskilled labour.

Another key area for a China-India focus that has huge potential is infrastructure investment. In recent years, the infamous “Made in China”, has had great challenge from the new label- “Built by China”.

The unprecedented scale of a new sort of development in the last three decades has characterised, what some have termed the “China Miracle”, again highlighting the importance of investment.Travelling around China, you will see grand highways, high-speed railways, airports, and fancy modern buildings mushrooming everywhere.

India has also similarly stressed on the importance of investment in achieving growth. According to India’s Twelfth Five Year Plan, investment will increase to $1.2 trillion, which accounts for 8-8.5 per cent of it’s GDP. Such an ambitious goal needs to be laced with the support of foreign investment. India needs to expand dramatically the sources and volume of available infrastructure financing.

A full fledged cooperation scheme between China and India will have far-reaching effects, says He Fan [AP Images]

With the sharp decline of outbound investment from the US and Europe after the global financial crisis, India has to rely more on South-South cooperation, and China should be its most logical partner. India-China bilateral or multilateral infrastructure investment funds can be established to invest in such areas as energy, traffic, telecommunication and urban construction.

If China is called the ‘world factory’, India is the ‘world office’. India has upgraded its very dynamic service sector, especially in the IT industry, significantly since the year 2000. India also has its niche in the pharmaceutical sector for India’s $26bn generic drug industry supplies much of the affordable medicine used in the developing world.

Curiously enough, China’s new march of structural reforms also emphasises the development of its service sector. IT and healthcare are among the priorities of the reform agenda for the new Chinese administration. It will be quite amazing to see what kind of cooperation China and India can clinch on these areas. A joint endeavor here would surely reach commanding heights for a new kind of industrial revolution.

Both countries have a trump card in the form of a large pool of high quality, yet still relatively low-wage, engineers and scientists, and the boost of large domestic markets. It would not be surprising then to see China and India take the leap-frog to win the competition in many high technology sectors.

However, there are crucial issues to tackle before unleashing the huge potential of mutual cooperation between the  two growth dynamos. For starters, India has to build a more mature manufacturing base, and China has to open its service sector.

A full-fledged multi-paradigm cooperation scheme between China and India will have far-reaching tectonic effects, and place the China-India relations in a different orbit. It can also pave the way for more strident coordination in international and regional affairs between the two most important powers in the region.

It will be a blessing on Asia and the whole world if the two neighbours can get on well and respect each other’s concerns.

On April 15, some 40 Chinese soldiers pitched their tents 19 kilometres into the Indian territory of Raki Nala in the eastern Ladakh region of the Great Himalaya Mountains.

A face-off ensued when the Indian Army then set up their tents 500 metres away from the Chinese.

On May 5, both armies pulled back their forces after mutual agreement.

But Beijing’s actions in the past few weeks have shaken New Delhi out of a comfortable inertia.

In the recent years leading up to the Raki Nala standoff – probably the most high profile confrontation since the near war in the Sumdorong Chu Valley in 1987 – Indian leaders had lulled themselves into believing that the Line of Actual Control (LAC) – the China-India 4,057-kilometre border – will not change:

They believed that LAC would not deteriorate into the conflict-fraught LoC (Line of Control with Pakistan).

Indeed, those in the Indian administration who dictate Pakistan and Kashmir policies have often cited a “peaceful LAC” as an illustration of how India’s boundary should be – “unsettled”.

But the Chinese tents which went up in the dry rivulet of Raki Nala appear to have achieved their raison d’être.

In the days since the tents went up, India has agreed to discuss a Border Defence Cooperation Agreement that China proposed a month-and-half before the Chinese People’s Liberation Army trekked in to Raki Nala.

India has no one but itself to blame for its current predicament.

Successive governments in New Delhi have despite everything continued willy-nilly with the ghost of Captain Younghusband and Lord Curzon, head of the British India government in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and their misconceived attempts at the time to protect the British Raj from Russia.

Lord Curzon ordered the ‘invasion’ of Tibet on the fears that it was about to ally with Russia, which could have threatened British India. The campaign yielded no worthwhile results for London (China annexed Tibet after World War Two) and ended in an irrelevant treaty.

However, what separates the British approach from the current Indian one is that the British were willing to make amends; India is not.

In the 1913-14 Simla Convention, British India accepted that Aksai Chin, an area disputed between China and India, was part of Tibet.

It is difficult to say what could have promoted an otherwise wise leader like Jawaharlal Nehru to lay claim over the area in the 1950s.

Perhaps, politics and the lack of tall leadership in New Delhi lie at the core of this decision. No government in India has ever tried to engage the people-at-large in a debate with the motive of informing them that India’s claim over Aksai Chin isn’t very strong and perhaps even arbitrary.

More importantly, no government has tried to build a consensus that a resolution of the China-India border issue will require some give-and-take compromising of territory. Lack of political maneuverability has New Delhi in a bind.

To be fair, China has shown much more flexibility. It has given ample indication to India in the last 60 years that it is willing to concede to India in the east, if India were to re-consider its claim over Aksai Chin.

Aksai Chin is crucial to China not only because it skirts the Karakorum Highway – which connects Pakistan to China through the Karakorum Mountains in the north – but also because it connects Tibet and Xinjiang region in the northwest.

Furthermore, in the first ever “Blue Book” on India, Beijing appears to have toned down its aggression over Arunachal Pradesh – an area in northeast India which both sides claim and which witnessed much of the bitter war in 1962.

Of course, during the brouhaha over the recent standoff, New Delhi and the Indian media, perhaps to its own peril, discovered they had an abundance of “China experts”.

The immediate provocation for China to set up camp in Raki Nala appears to be seven bunkers that the Indian Army was constructing in the Chumar sector in violation of existing agreements.

All eyes, then, will be on Chinese Premier Li Keqiang , the second most important figure in China’s new leadership, when he arrives in India on May 19 in his first official visit abroad.

He is likely to want the LAC to be part of the buffet that New Delhi had planned to serve during his visit. Whether curry mixes with Chow mein remains to be seen.

Two days after the Chinese tents at Raki Nalla were taken down and troops withdrawn, a top official in New Delhi said “we are still analysing the reasons for the incursion, but we are inclined to believe that they (China) want us to bring [discussion of] the LAC out of the back burner”.

Beginning with New Delhi’s Foreign Office’s PAIS (Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran) desk, that argument has begun to falter.

In the meantime, China is turning the Karakorum Highway, at least on its side, into an all-weather road.

Add to that the announcement from former Indian Army Chief V K Singh to the Indian public that Chinese military engineers are in Gilgit and Baltisthan, part of  Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) – an area that the Indian Parliament  has resolved to claim.

In other words, while China and Pakistan are finding convergent interest across the Karakorum Highway, the Foreign Office in New Delhi is yet to reconcile the head of the PAI desk with the Head of East Asia desk.

The divide runs wider and deeper, and flows right into the schism between the Ministry of the Defence and the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The Army claims incursions like that of April 15 happen because it doesn’t have operational control over the Indo-Tibetan Border Police – a para-military force that is designated to guard the India-China border.

On the other hand, the Ministry of Home Affairs argues against the army’s possessiveness about boundaries.

Such is the environment that awaits Le Keqiang in New Delhi.

Unlike External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid’s visit to Beijing, which provided him with no answers about the April 15 incursion, Li Keqiang will likely scissor the fat of emotion and get to the bone.

Beijing is sick of New Delhi’s languor. “Settle the borders, we want to determine where China ends and India begins. You want to keep it ambiguous.” That is likely to be Premier Li’s categorical statement.

This ups India’s ante. New Delhi wanted this visit to focus on trade, on how Chinese markets could be opened up to more Indian goods and services. The incursion at Raki Nala has made it possible for Beijing to disrupt the Indian government’s approach.

In other words, Beijing is saying we have your money so let us not discuss it; but you have our borders so let us talk about it. The borders are not China’s alone, however, as they are also shared by Tibet, and with a mixed ethnicity and religiosity in China’s autonomous region of Xinjing.

China drubbed India in war after the Indian military found that it had connected Xinjiang and Tibet through territory claimed by India.

Look at the map, look at the topography, see the ranges spiraling out of the Pamir mountain range in Central Asia, and try untangling the knot.

Forbidding as it may be, there is a way to scale the Pamir Knot.  Bar the last 60 odd years, neither the treacherously high ranges of the PamirMountains (nor their off-shoots such as the Karakorum) or the Himalayas have stopped exchanges between India and China.

The Doha Trade talks have been stalled for years due to differences on trade barriers, agricultural subsidies [Getty Images]

“It is politically impossible to contemplate other areas and leave agriculture out. Industrial goods, services and agriculture were in the core of the Doha Round in 2008 and will continue to be once it is resumed. There is no way to take any of the three from the board,” said Azevedo.

He said his greatest challenge after assuming office would be to make the Doha Development Round move forward.

Negotiations for the Doha Round have been suspended for years due to differences on issues such as trade barriers and agricultural subsidies.

Azevedo said at a press conference in Brazil’s foreign ministry in Brasilia, the federal capital of Brazil, that the dilemma will have to be addressed once negotiations are resumed.

The diplomat admitted that the current scenario is not favorable to the fall of trade barriers because of the adverse effects of the 2008 financial crisis.

“Some 20 per cent of the protectionist measures introduced since 2008 have been lifted, which means that 80 per cent are still active,” Azevedo said, stressing the importance of resuming negotiations to the world trade club.

He expressed optimism over the next WTO Ministerial Conference to be held in December in Bali, Indonesia, where matters such as agriculture, tariffs, food security and subsidies will be discussed.

“The negotiations are not advancing the way we expect. There is some pessimism in Geneva. I hope we can revert that to have a consensus by December. I have not given up on Bali yet,” said Azevedo.

Azevedo, who served as Brazil’s ambassador to the WTO since 2008, will take office as the next director general in September.

Azevedo beat Mexico’s Herminio Blanco, widely seen as the favored choice of the United States in the race for the top spot.

Source: Agencies

President Putin (right) reiterated Russia’s assistance to South Africa in developing an advanced nuclear power industry [PPIO]

“We intend to transform this group into a full-fledged mechanism for cooperating on global economic and political issues,” said Russian President Vladimir Putin.

This was the third time in less than a year that President Putin has met his South African counterpart Jacob Zuma, the Russian president described this as a sign of the growing ties between the two nations.

“I believe that as partners in BRICS we need to have a lot in common. As I indicated when you were in South Africa – South Africa’s membership to BRICS to us, it means, in a way, Africa’s membership to BRICS. And therefore that is actually very important,” President Zuma told Putin.

“It is a sign that we pay a great deal of attention to each other, and we believe that relations between the Republic of South Africa and Russia have good prospects,” Putin said.

“In fact, we have very good political contacts, not only bilaterally but also in the international arena, within a variety of key international organisations,” he added.

Putin reiterated Russia’s assistance to South Africa in developing an advanced nuclear power industry.

“We see great potential for cooperation in nuclear energy. Russia is ready to provide assistance in creating a comprehensive nuclear energy industry in South Africa,” Putin said during the press statements following talks.

Currently, South Africa has two nuclear reactors accounting for five per cent of the country’s electricity.

South Africa is seeking to expand its nuclear energy sector, planning a further 9,600 MW capacity in the next decade.

The two countries vowed to partner in other energy projects, including development of alternative energy sources.

“The president has given a lot of details in that area. I don’t think I need to repeat, except to say that we feel we are on the right move in terms of deepening our relations. And today’s meeting will go a long way to ensure that they are strengthened, they are broadened,” Zuma added.

The situation in Syria was also discussed during the talks.

“We agreed on further coordinating positions on peaceful settlement of the conflict in Syria. We are determined to continue to work to end violence and external interference as quickly as possible and will encourage the maintenance of Syria’s territorial integrity and sovereignty,” Putin said.

Daria Chernyshova

Samaras with Chinese President Xi Jinping [Xinhua Images]

Samaras arrived in Beijing on Wednesday and is paying a five-day official visit to China.

A joint communiqué released during Samaras’ visit said Greece welcomes China to participate in the privatisation of the country’s state-owned assets.

Ratings agency Fitch has just upgraded Greece and has given it a stable outlook, saying that the country’s Economic Adjustment Programme is “on track”.

Samaras met Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang during his trip.

“(We) look forward to closer cooperation between the two sides on trade, shipping, culture and tourism,” Xi said, adding that the Chinese government encourages the country’s enterprises to invest in Greece.

Xi said China firmly backs integration in Europe and is ready to make efforts with Greece, who will hold the rotating presidency of the European Union in 2014.

Greece has remained mired in recession for nearly six years and almost crashed out of the euro last year.

With inputs from Agencies

[Xinhua Images]

Ten provinces have been affected, including some in central China.

Guangdong province has been worst-hit, with rainstorms battering five cities, including the provincial capital Guangzhou, with at least 22 people are reported to have been killed, and 16 people reported missing in the province.

More than 650,000 people throughout the province are affected.

Transport conditions have been severely affected due to the rainstorms that triggered flooding and landslides.

China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs and the National Committee for Disaster Reduction have launched a level-four disaster relief response.

Source: Agencies

A Russian combat helicopter during military exercises with China [Xinhua]

Rosoboronexport representative Grigory Kozlov told reporters at the Sixth HeliRussia-2013 international fair that 140 helicopters totaling $2.2 billion were expected to be delivered in 2013.

Russia is also in the running for potential contracts totaling a further $9 billion, he said.

Kozlov said Russian helicopters were superior to competitors’ aircraft due to their advanced technical characteristics.

India is among the largest clients, with a potential order of 197 Ka-226T combat helicopters up for grabs in a current tender, he said.

“There is a chance we’ll win that tender,” Kozlov said.

Ka-226T is a multi-purpose helicopter equipped with French-made engines. It is capable of carrying a load of up to 1500 kg and has a speed of 200 km/h.

Russia is also vying to supply 12 Mi-17V5 helicopters to Afghanistan and 12 more Mi-35M craft to Brazil.

Rosoboronexport is the only Russian arms trader present at HeliRussia-2013, which started here Thursday.

In 2012, Russia exported helicopters worth a total of $1.5 billion to 23 countries, according to the Rosoboronexport website. Its largest clients include India and China.

Xinhua

Netanyahu met with Putin to discuss resolving the Syrian crisis [PPIO]

The talks are expected to focus in particular on the situation in Syria. Ban earlier said in an interview that he hopes to discuss settling the Syrian issues during his visit to Russia with account for the country’s important role in international affairs.

Syria has been high on the agenda of Russia’s foreign policy.

On May 14, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Putin to discuss a way out of the Syrian quagmire.

About 80,000 people have died in Syria since the beginning of the uprising against President Bashar Assad, according to UN figures, and a further 1.5 million have become refugees.

Israel itself launched two attacks against Syrian military facilities two weeks ago, claiming it fears that advanced weaponry which threatens Israeli cities could fall in the hands of radical troops.

Netanyahu’s visit to Russia is the third in a flurry of diplomatic activity seeking to find a political solution to the Syrian crisis.

It has been discussed in Russia over the past week, with John Kerry and David Cameron visiting Moscow and Sochi respectively.

Daria Chernyshova, the BRICS Post’s correspondent in Moscow, says that Russia has been at odds with the West over the issue, but the recent visits signify that the two are trying hard to put aside differences to find a solution to the Syrian crisis.

They also signify that Western powers see Russia as a key partner in helping to end the civil war.

Moscow has repeatedly stated it has no interest in seeing Assad remain in power, but is rather concerned that unilateral sanctions would create a power vacuum that would lead to more violence.

Syria analyst Camille Otrakji says that it is important for the US and the UN to work from the common denominator that “neither side can win by force, neither side is always right and moral, and that neither side enjoys the backing of a large majority of the Syrian people”.

The UN chief is in Russia on an official visit on May 16-19. The visit is Ban’s sixth to Russia, with the previous one paid in April 2011.

The Russian Foreign Ministry earlier said it hopes Ban will discuss social and economic aspects of the United Nations activities and plans for the organization’s development after 2015.