Australia’s stunning victory in winning a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council has been welcomed in India, with initial comments along the lines that the world’s largest democracy now has a firm friend at the highest level of the international body.
The decision, coming so soon after Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s successful visit, has made Australia the current flavour of the month in New Delhi with commentators heralding a new era of improved relations between the two countries.
Although this will not make great ripples at home, it is extremely important in India which still believes it is threatened by neighbouring China 50 years after the two countries fought a fierce and unresolved border war.
The boundaries between the two are still a subject of negotiation, and talks to find a solution have dragged on over years and decades. In more recent times China has become more aggressive in its negotiations and has produced maps showing the Indian State of Arunachal Pradesh as ‘Southern Tibet’, an implication not lost on political and military leaders in New Delhi.
For the moment the Congress Government is content to restrict the rivalry with its Asian neighbour to matters of economics, but the same cannot be said for the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In a recent speech BJP President Nitin Gadkari said his party would give the border dispute top priority if it was voted back into power at the next election, due in 2014.
Mr Gadkari said this should give a clear message that while India had no intention of attacking a neighbouring country, “it will not tolerate any violation of its borders by any neighbouring country”.
His words are significant, coming as they do almost exactly on the 50th anniversary of the 1962 conflict. It is possible that the BJP leader is simply using the date to make a bit of political capital. On the other hand he may see an increasing desire among the population to put the matter to bed.
It is worth noting that China chooses moments to advance its cause when world attention, and especially that of the United States, is distracted. It invaded and claimed Tibet as its territory during the Korean War and launched its attack on India at the height of the Cuban missile crisis.
A strike by Israel on Iran’s nuclear facilities would present a similar opportunity.
This is pure speculation, but there is no doubt that Australia is preparing to take its seat at the UN during interesting times.
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