Delhi’s knee-jerk reaction could be explained by its intense suspicion about “third party mediation” between India and Pakistan.
It’s a pity that the government was quick to dismiss the call from the Chinese ambassador to India, Luo Zhaohui, for a trilateral dialogue between Delhi, Islamabad and Beijing. Between China’s vague proposal and Delhi’s definitive rejection, there might be interesting political space that is worth exploring in the not too distant future. What is important is not the shape of the negotiating table, but what is on it. Sceptics in the South Block say Luo’s enthusiasm to advance the engagement of India with new ideas has not always been backed by Beijing. Recall last year that Luo had suggested that Beijing could rename the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to overcome Delhi’s objections to President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative.
That Beijing did not publicly back the idea does not necessarily mean it had nothing to do with it. Confident powers often instruct their ambassadors to fly kites, deliberately, to test the reactions of the intended audience. Delhi has suggested Luo’s views on the trilateral dialogue may be “personal”. But ambassadors don’t usually express their personal views in public. The fact is that Beijing has made no secret of its interest in promoting good relations between India and Pakistan, under the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation banner, which now has embraced the South Asian siblings as full members.
Delhi’s knee-jerk reaction could be explained by its intense suspicion about “third party mediation” between India and Pakistan. The fear that big powers would impose a Kashmir solution on India may have had a reasonable political basis many decades ago. Today, it makes no sense for an emerging power like India to be so jumpy about “third parties”. If tiny Mongolia can sit down with its giant neighbours, Russia and China, on the margins of the SCO, what is India so afraid of? Instead of rejecting the trilateral dialogue, Delhi should lob the ball right back into China’s court. It should affirm its readiness to sit on the table for three if the agenda is right. Delhi should propose a three-fold agenda: First, connectivity cooperation between the three without prejudice to territorial disputes in Kashmir; second, trilateral cooperation against terrorism without reference to so-called “root causes”; third, liberal trade and transit arrangements between the three countries in India’s north-west. If China can deliver Pakistan on this agenda, India should be more than happy to convene the first round of the trilateral dialogue in Delhi.