Not part of US’ Asia Pivot- India FM
November 20, 2013, 6:36 am

The foreign minister said the new Border Defence Cooperation Agreement (BDCA) signed with China is “incremental” [Xinhua]

“This is the reflection of a current, contemporary situation in which there are different expectations from India, but still expectations of leadership. And, we are trying to fulfill those,” said Khurshid in an interview on Wednesday to a Singapore think tank.

Commenting on the new impetus in Sino-Indian ties, he said nothing would prevent India’s rapid engagement with China.

“People speculate in this part of the world about US position on pivot, US position on rebalancing towards Asia; … and there are, obviously, methodologies of and connectivity that this part of the world has with China despite differences on certain dimensions. But we are, I think, lucky in that our position is that we will not be part of anybody else’s scheme of things; and, therefore, we are not,” he urged.

The US is eager to extricate itself from military conflicts in the Middle East and deploy attention to Asia where, as US President Barack Obama put it, “the action’s going to be.” Many see the American Asia pivot as a bid to contain China.

“Now, we actually advocated China’s entry into WTO [the World Trade Organization] … because, that allowed China to participate in a larger frame of things, in which India was a willing partner,” said Khurshid.

The foreign minister said the new Border Defence Cooperation Agreement (BDCA) signed with China is “incremental”.

“In parallel, we are actually talking in the Special Representatives [forum]; we have done 16 rounds. We are talking about the basic principles followed by the basic format by which we will be able to find a resolution. We know that it can’t be done in a hurry. China knows it can’t be done in a hurry,” he added.

Khurshid also said New Delhi has independent ties with China and the US, dismissing any suggestion of linkage.

“We will never be allies of the US; we will be friends, strategic partners, not allies. And similarly we will be strategic partners with China; hopefully, we will become friends with China when all our issues are resolved; we have a very good working relationship with them, but we have things to resolve with them,” he added.

India provides intrinsic and important link between the developing and the developed world, says the Indian External Affairs Minister.

“[This is] because they [people] think we provide intrinsic and important link between the developing world and the developed world,” said Khurshid

“I think, that expectation of India is reflected in people supporting India for a permanent seat in the [United Nations] Security Seat whenever the UN is reformed,” he added.

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