It is time to pay our neighbours, both China and Pakistan in their own coin as the enemy lurch in our border to pounce on us at an opportune moment and play peace card from one side. Moreover both Pakistan and China are trying to disturb peace in India with infiltration as they fear our nation will become a part of global economy soon. By creating turmoil in the borders, they can divert attention and we will be compared to spend more on defence every year. Incidentally, India skipped the opening ceremony of China’s Belt and Road Forum following sovereignty concern. The meeting called the Belt and Road Forum (BRF) was attended by 29 heads of state and governments and India purposefully avoided with a concern over neighbours. In a strongly-worded statement, India had said that the connectivity initiative must be pursued in a manner that respects sovereignty and territorial integrity. Guided by our principled position in the matter, we have been urging China to engage in a meaningful dialogue on its connectivity initiative, ‘One Belt, One Road’ which was later renamed as Belt and Road Initiative. It is the right way of showing our concern in a sensitive matter in a typical way to make them understand and act accordingly.
Calicut Ramani
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
