China and India Join ForcesBy Michael van der Galien, Editor-in-Chief
PoliGazette
Jan. 21, 2008
[THE IMAGE ABOVE DEPICTS THE WELL KNOWN SYMBOL OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY KNOWN AS 'YIN and YANG' (See: The Internet Encylopedia of Philosophy, at: http://www.iep.utm.edu/y/yinyang.htm; Chinese Philosophy, Yin and Yang, at: http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/CHPHIL/YINYANG.HTM ; Wikipedia, Yin and Yang, at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yin_yang ].
Via The Hindu comes the following document: “A Shared Vision for the 21st Century of the Republic of India and the People’s Republic of China” (http://www.hindu.com/nic/rd1.pdf ).
The main idea behind the document? Since both countries are on the rise and since, combined, they “represent more than one-third of humanity,” “[t]he two sides are convinced that it is time to look to the future in building a relationship of friendship and trust, based on equality, in which each is sensitive to the concerns and aspirations of the other.”
It goes on to say that “[t]he two sides believe that in the new century, Panchsheel, the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-Existence, should continue to constitute the basic guiding principles for good relations between all countries and for creating the conditions for realizing peace and progress of humankind.”
According to China and India, “[a]n international system founded on these principles will be fair, rational, equal and mutually beneficial, will promote durable peace and common prosperity, create equal opportunities and and eliminate poverty and discrimination.”
Interestingly, the document also says the following: “The two sides believe that the continuous democratisation [sic - ha! that one was for Canadian, Indian and British readers] of international relations and multilateralism are an important objective in the new century.”
What does this ‘democratization’ mean? Well, for one thing: India wants more influence in the United Nations. “The Chinese side understands and supports India’s aspirations to play a greater role in the United Nations, including in the Security Council.”
Head on over to read the document yourself in its entirety if you’ve got time to do so today: it’s quite an interesting read. They also mention global warming (they realize its a problem and want to do something about it) and globalization (which they consider to be a very good thing).
One thing is clear: India and China realize they’re the great powers of the future and they want to befriend each other, not become each other’s enemies. They also realize that free trade benefits them and that the world needs more, not less, globalization.
No comments:
Post a Comment