Chinese ambivalent on UNSC seat for India

China’s support to India’s quest for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) remains a distant dream. There was no grand gesture from China on India’s bid for a permanent seat in the UNSC during the just-concluded three-day China visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Due to its zero-sum intransigence, Beijing has again shut a window of opportunity to reach out to those in India who harbour deep suspicions, real or perceived, of China’s geopolitical intentions.

While addressing the students of the Tsinghua University during his recent China visit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi explicitly underlined the positive impact on Sino-Indian bilateral relations of China’s support. He said: “China’s support for India’s permanent membership of a reformed UNSC and for India’s membership of export control regimes like Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) will do more than just strengthen our international cooperation.

It will take our relationship to a new level. It will give Asia a stronger voice in the world.” The Joint Statement signed between the two Prime Ministers, however, only stated that China “understands and supports India’s aspiration to play a greater role in the United Nations including in the Security Council”. In other words, India has no option but to wait for an unambiguous Chinese support.

It has become a customary feature during high-level official visits for the Chinese side to merely “understand and support” India’s aspirations for greater inter-national role. As long as both nuclear-armed Asian rivals find themselves at odds in reshaping international institutions, including the UNSC, Asia can never hope to have a stronger voice in the world.

In politics, symbols of power are as important as the attributes of power. One of the vital pillars of India’s intense desire for a more respectable position in the international political, economic, and diplomatic realms is the pursuit of a permanent seat in the UNSC, which is often regarded, rightly or wrongly, as the ultimate symbol of being a great power on the interactional stage.

The fate of India’s bid is mainly in the hands of the veto-wielding permanent members of the UNSC and China is the only veto-wielding permanent member which is yet to extend an unequivocal support to India’s bid to become a permanent member of the UNSC. Past analysis of the official documents and statements concerned shows that China has neither clearly supported nor opposed India’s bid.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to India in April 2005 had resulted in establishing a ‘Strategic and Cooperative Partnership for Peace and Prosperity’ between India and China. The Joint Statement merely said: “China attaches great importance to the status of India in international affairs. It understands and supports India’s aspirations to play an active role in the UN and international affairs.”

China, while being publicly noncommittal, has reasons to oppose an Indian seat. As Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has recently remarked, “there are no coincidences in politics. Beijing’s stance too is solely driven by the realist logic of balance of power. China has perfected the art of saying neither yes nor no.

Delhi’s quest for a permanent seat at the UNSC continues to be stymied by Chinese ambivalence at best, or resistance at worst. Despite Beijing making sympathetic noises in bilateral meetings with Delhi, China has been attempting to defeat the collective diplomatic effort by the G-4 to expand the Security Council’s permanent membership.

By Vinay Kaura