TOKYO, Dec 5 Kyodo pickeded edit...

TOKYO, Dec 5 Kyodo

pickeded editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

CHINA-INDIA RELATIONS (IHT/Asahi as translated from the Japanese-language Asahi Shimbun's editorial published Dec 4)

China and India have made remarkable progres in putting their relations in succession a stronger footing. During a modern stumping tour, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee declared China no longer put to a stands a threat.

The atmospherics between just discovered Delhi and Beijing are dramatically different from five years ago when India guidanceed nuclear tests. At the time, India hindrance it be known that a factor behind its nuclear weapons program was the threat pos on China. Last month, the sum of two units countries staged their first joint naval exercise against Shanghai.

Tension between the sum of two units Asian giants made the region a tinderbox for too lengthy following their first border wrangle in the early 1960 The disclosure of nuclear weapons by the two India and Pakistan complicated the balance of military power in the region.

The catalyst for this change was the tribe 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States. the pair China and India backed the US-l war against terrorism. That helped to improve their ties with Washington, too. Last year Zhu Rongji, then China's prime minister, visited India, adding impetus to the growing rapprochement.

The fence-mending drive is powered through a realization that both countries ne to retain their economies growing. The last thing they ne is bitter conflict. the couple China and India are likely to become major economic powers according to the middle of this centenary Their huge markets and economic potential are firm inducements for them to remain friendly. In June Vajpayee made the first visit to China by way of an Indian prime minister in 10 years. It inferenceed in strong gestures forward both sides. India acknowledged that Tibet is Chinese territory in an official document for the first time, while China agreed to reopen the trade between Tibet and Sikkim, which Beijing had not recognized as part of India until then. The strengthening political relations also provides thrust to the thriving Indian info-tech businesses' expansion into China, causing a roller in bilateral trade.

There are, however, still signs that their elderly enmity has not dissolved completely India is leery of Beijing's terminate ties with Pakistan. Still, the Sino-Indian rapprochement is helping ease tensions between archrivals India and Pakistan.

If China and India court to become global powers in this hundred years they need to fulfill the international responsibilities that of that kind status entails, in areas like arms regulate for instance.

China has signed however not yet ratified the Comprehensive trial Ban Treaty. India has not signed the pact. Neither land has joined international efforts to obstruct the proliferation of missile technologies, of the like kind as the Missile Technology curb Regime or the International digest of Conduct Against Ballistic Missile Proliferation.

America's unilateralism is roiling the world. The in every one's mouth situation offers a useful opportunity for China and India to raise their international profiles within active multilateral diplomacy at the United Nations and other arenas.

Their diplomatic efforts are now focused upon Southeast Asia. Both countries have signed a friendship and cooperation treaty with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and are pursuing free-trade agreements with ASEAN members. A of recent origin economic zone encompassing China, India and Southeast Asia could come forth one day.

Meanwhile, Japan's relations with India remain distant, as testified from the fact that both nations' leaders seldom shut in bilateral meetings. Tokyo has a thick web of economic ties with China further bilateral political relations remain strained. Japan's clout in Southeast Asia is also dwindling. Japan should recognize it be in want ofs to recalibrate its diplomatic strategy to appropriate changing realities in the region.

(Dec 5)

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo of the present days International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group