The Return Of The Big Brother?
“We all know that Your Excellency is a legendary statesman with outstanding leadership. You are a great hero for defeating terrorism.”
Air Chief Marshall Xu Qiliang to President Rajapaksa[i]
“President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday supported China’s idea of a new Asian security concept….”
Daily Mirror – 22.5.2014
President Mahinda Rajapaksa was receiving the highest Chinese military delegation ever to visit Colombo, the day Narendra Modi’s BJP romped to victory in India. The purposes of this visit was identified by the Vice Chairman of China’s Central Military Commission as enhancing ‘strategic mutual trust’ and elevating ‘relations between the two countries and the armed forces to a new level’[ii].
President Rajapaksa was in Beijing, attending the fourth Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia the day the BJP officially nominated Narendra Modi as PM. In his speech, Mr. Rajapaksa supported China’s proposal for “the creation of a new Asian structure for security cooperation based on a regional group that included Russia and Iran and excluded the United States”[iii].
Coincidences of not, these events will be watched by the BJP, because they signal the growing Chinese-footstep in a region India considers her own.
In a move which surprised almost everyone, Narendra Modi invited the SAARC leaders to attend his inauguration. Media attention is focused on how Pakistan’s new PM and the omnipotent military will respond to this invitation. But this unprecedented move would have caused some flutter in Beijing as well, this may well be Mr. Modi’s first step in asserting Indian supremacy in the South Asian region. Read More
