They Might be Giants

Here is a recent quote that paints an interesting picture for the 21st century:

“When countries of the size of China and India, together accounting for 2.5 billion people, begin to unshackle their creative energies, it impacts the whole world. The world knows it and is watching with interest.”

That was Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, speaking to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) yesterday - part of his visit to Beijing during the first part of last week. (The headline for the article in the Times of India covering the speech read, "India, China can dislodge West: Manmohan.")

Singh and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, have taken the helm in New Delhi and Beijing at a time of momentous change for their respective countries - both internally, and for the role they can and seek to play in the world. If the excerpted quote above from Singh's speech is any indicator, they are well aware of this.

Together, India and China make up close to a third of the world’s population (2.5 billion of roughly 6.6 billion people worldwide) while they both continue to experience rapid economic growth and expand their percentage share of world economic output. Both are nuclear-armed nations fielding militaries with nearly 3 million a piece (including reservists), according to the 2007 Military Balance Sheet by IISS. Trade between the two reached $37 billion in 2007, and New Delhi and Beijing are looking to almost double that figure in two years time.

They aren't BFF, but the two neighbors aren't total strangers, either. Both realize that they have more to gain in the region and abroad by engaging each other in a cooperative partnership of sorts, rather than an antagonistic rising power standoff that characterized much of their Cold War relationship. And true to form, as part of an exhaustive list of MOU's agreed upon by the two countries, Sing and Hu signed "A Shared Vision for the 21st Century" which had this to say on the emerging international order:

The two sides favour an open and inclusive international system and believe that drawing lines on the ground of ideologies and values, or on geographical criteria, is not conducive to peaceful and harmonious coexistence.

The two sides believe that the continuous democratisation of international relations and multilateralism are an important objective in the new century.