China bypassed key govts for its ambitions in Indian Ocean

FOREIGN MINISTRIES OF KEY LITTORAL STATES WERE BYPASSED BY BEIJING WHILE SENDING INVITES FOR VIRTUAL MEET

NEW DELHI: China’s bid to expand its footprint into the Indian Ocean through a regional development cooperation forum virtual meeting on November 21 at Kunming is turning out to be intriguing as foreign ministries of key littoral states were bypassed by Beijing while sending invitations, people aware of the matter said.

Although Chinese state media has tweeted that the meeting organiser, China International Development Cooperation Agency, wants to work with India to contribute to the prosperity of the Indian Ocean Region ( IOR), facts collated from different capitals show that the event was attended by officials of client states, Sinophile experts, and private individuals.

While the Chinese organisers sent the invitation to Maldives through the foreign ministry, the foreign ministries of Sri Lanka, Madagascar and Mauritius were kept out of the programme. The Maldives government on November 15 conveyed its decision not to participate in the forum through the Chinese embassy in Male. The virtual meeting was, however, attended by Mohammed Waheed Hassan, a pro-China former president who divested Indian firm GMR of an airport operations contract during his tenure.

The virtual meeting was attended by Myanmar and was represented by minister for international cooperation U Ko Ko Hliang. The representation from Bangladesh came in the form of Dr KM Azam Chowdhury, assistant professor and head of the oceanography department at Dhaka University. There was representation from Pakistan at the official level. While there was no formal representation from Australia, the meeting was attended by former prime minister Kevin Rudd in his capacity as head of a think- tank that also has an India chapter. It was during Rudd’s tenure that Australia walked out of the Malabar 2008 naval exercises after China demarched India, the US, Australia, Japan, and Singapore for the exercises. It was also during his tenure that Australia ceased to be a member of Quad, an idea floated by then Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe.

While Chinese media has tried to portray the Kunming meeting as a major intervention in the Indian Ocean Region, diplomatic evidence suggests that it was a minor event at which a junior minister of the rank of an Indian additional secretary addressed the gathering through a pre-recorded video.

The meeting revealed more about President Xi Jinping’s ambitions in the Indian Ocean through client states in South Asia and IOR that are already reeling under Chinese debt, than its military capacities to challenge the Quad in the IndoPacific, the people cited in the first instance said.