Integrity Score 390
No Records Found
No Records Found
Hissing Dragon-Squirming Tiger:
Comparisons, Negotiations
and Attitudes
continues...
In June 2003 the Indian PM Vajpayee went almost as a supplicant to the ‘Middle Kingdom’ and was treated with courtesy and respect, but was made to reiterate that India acknowledged that the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) was an integral part of China. The infamous 1954 Panchsheel Agreement had repeatedly mentioned the ‘Tibet region of China’.
Rajiv Gandhi’s acknowledgment of the TAR alone thus eliminated any mention or discussion of the status of the two other large parts of ethnic Tibet, i.e., Amdo and Kham, which have been incorporated into China proper. In return he was not even granted a concrete concession on Sikkim, talks on which China has officially denied as being a ‘breakthrough’, but described as merely a ‘historic process’. The change depicted in Chinese maps in 2004, and in the non-listing of Sikkim as an independent country, do not as yet constitute formal Chinese acceptance of Sikkim as part of India.
However, the 2003 visit by an Indian PM broke new ground, as had the 1988 one, in that India acknowledged that ‘official-level’ talks were getting nowhere towards resolving the dispute, and that political-level decision-making was needed. The appointment of a Political
Representative during the June 2003 visit of the Indian PM to China was an indication that India recognized that political will was needed to break the present state of deadlock.
To be continued....