CHINA AND PAKISTAN

IS PAKISTAN DELUSIONAL ABOUT CHINA’S SUPPORT?

Firstpost., May 23, 2013

Islamabad: Chinese Premier Li Keqiang praised the Sino-Pakistan relationship to the hilt on Thursday, urging the "all-weather friends" to boost cooperation in business, trade, energy and infrastructure and build a long-vaunted economic corridor.

But not everyone is convinced China has Pakistan interests totally at heart.Li arrived in the Pakistani capital on Wednesday on the second leg of his first official trip since taking office in March and after a visit to Pakistan and China's arch rival, India. He leaves for Switzerland and Germany later on Thursday.

"We want to achieve dynamic balance in our trade," Li said in an address to the Senate.

"We are ready to work with Pakistan to speed up the project of upgrading the Karakoram Highway, actively explore and develop the long-term plans of building a China-Pakistan economic corridor, expanding our shared interests."

The Karakoram Highway, built through towering mountains with China's help, links northern Pakistan with western China.

Li expressed hope for financial, maritime, agricultural, defence and energy cooperation, and praised Pakistan for its "tenacity and fortitude" and "creating one miracle after another".

"The China-Pakistan friendship has stood the test of hardship and is more precious than gold," he said.

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INDIA-CHINA EXCHANGES

LI KEQIANG DECLARES 2014 AS YEAR OF EXCHANGES BETWEEN INDIA, CHINA TO BOOST FRIENDSHIP

Business Standard, May 21, 2013

Stressing on the need for increased people-to-people interaction between India and China, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday declared 2014 as the year of exchanges between the two nations to boost understanding and friendship.

Addressing captains of Indian industry at a function organised by FICCI here, Keqiang said: " The year of 2014 will be to boost understanding and friendship between both countries."

Li Keqiang, who is in India on a three-day state visit, further said both India and China have the wisdom to find mutually acceptable solution to the boundary problem.

"India and China have not shied away from addressing boundary question, have wisdom to find a fair and mutually acceptable solution...We have been able to put all issues on the table," he added.

Supporting a favourable trade balance and seeking to decrease trade deficit between India and China, he said Beijing would support Chinese enterprises to increase investments in India and help Indian products have access to Chinese market.

Li Keqiang on Monday said that global prosperity would not be possible without the simultaneous development of China and India.

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FIFTH MISSILE FROM NORTH KOREA

NORTH KOREA TEST FIRES FIFTH MISSILE IN THREE DAYS OFF ITS COAST

Sangwon Yoon and Sungwoo Park

Bloomberg, May 20, 2013

North Korea fired its fifth missile in three days, demonstrating its military capabilities in defiance of global sanctions and diplomatic efforts to convince the totalitarian state to return to talks.

Kim Jong Un’s regime fired a projectile into waters off its eastern coast between 11 a.m. and noon today, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min Seok said in Seoul. The North, which launched a short-range missile yesterday after firing three on May 18, today said it is exercising its right to test-fire rockets as part of regular military drills.

The launchings follow months of North Korean threats that have moderated since U.S. and South Korea intensified diplomatic efforts this month to ease tensions and boost Chinese participation in global sanctions that target the North’s nuclear weapons program. The North has warned of nuclear strikes since testing an atomic device in February.

While the South sees no unusual North Korean troop movements, the military is “closely monitoring the situation” and is ready to respond to any escalation, Defense Ministry spokesman Kim said earlier. Earlier this month, the North threatened to retaliate against joint U.S. and South Korean naval drills.

“The North is likely testing these missiles as an armed protest against the recent military drills jointly conducted by the U.S. and South Korea,” said Yang Moo Jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.

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LI KEQIANG GOES TO DELHI

IN THE HANDS OF LI KEQIANG AND MANMOHAN SINGH, THE FUTURE OF A CONTINENT

Firstpost, May 19, 2013

In the summer of 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Duchess Sophie were assassinated on the Latin Bridge in Sarajevo. The shots weren't, as pop history now has it, heard around the world. Europe was riding a great wave of prosperity that had stretched for over a century; its markets better-integrated than ever before and economic institutions better-developed than any in human history. Britain, focused on the Irish conflict, paid little attention to the regicide in the Balkans. The United States had long retreated into isolation, choosing to know little and care less. France had-what else-a sex scandal on its mind.

Less than weeks after the killing in Sarajevo, though, jaunty marching-bands were cheering on soldiers headed into a war that would end in the death of 10 million soldiers and seven million civilians. Europe's great powers had begun an inexorable march towards the abyss.

Chinese premier Li Keqiang will land in New Delhi on Sunday-bearing a message, he says, that his country and India “must shake hands… so that together we can raise the standing of Asia in the world”. It's hard to imagine either he or Prime Minister Manmohan Singh don't know their not-always-steady hands must guide their nations towards something more important than prestige: the survival of a continent.

Europe in 1913 looked a lot like Asia in 2013. China, like Germany back then, fears its rise is being shackled by the established great powers. In the global system, the United States operates much like imperial Britain, an arbiter of the destiny of nations far from its shores. India, like Russia, is struggling to emerge from backwardness-and views its newly powerful neighbour with deep trepidation. There are competing military modernisation programmes; new geo-strategic alliances; tensions from the East China Sea to the Himalaya and the deserts of Persia.

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NK’S SHORT-RANGE MISSILES

NORTH KOREA FIRES THREE SHORT-RANGE MISSILES

South Korea’s defense ministry has said North Korea fired three short-range missiles from its east coast. The alleged launches follow months of threats from Pyongyang of impending war with the US and Seoul.

Deutsche Welle, May 18, 2013

"North Korea fired short-range guided missiles twice in the morning and once in the afternoon off its east coast," the South Korean Defense Ministry said by telephone. The missiles were fired into the Sea of Japan.

The official said the purpose of the launch remained unknown and would not speculate whether they were part of a test or training exercise.

"In case of any provocation, the ministry will keep monitoring the situation and remain on alert," the official said.

Pyongyang conducts regular launches of its short-range missiles, which have the capability to hit targets in South Korea.

Tensions had recently begun to cool on the Korean peninsula after months of threats following fresh UN sanctions against North Korea for its third nuclear test in February. Under the resolutions, the North is banned from testing ballistic missiles.

In March, North Korea tested two short-range missiles off its east coast amidst near daily warnings of impending war with Seoul and the United States.

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CHINA AND INDIA AS SOURCES OF CAPITAL

CHINA, INDIA TO BE BIGGEST INVESTORS BY 2030: REPORT

Anna Yukhananov

Reuters, May 17, 2013

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The percentage of global investment that goes to developing countries should triple in the next two decades as emerging economies catch up to richer nations and become more integrated into financial markets, the World Bank predicted in a report on Thursday.

These nations and their comparatively younger and bigger populations are also set to become the largest sources of capital, with China and India turning into the world's two biggest investors by 2030, the global development lender said.

The shifting landscape of saving and investment has profound implications for everything from which currencies will dominate global markets to the rise of new financial centers, patterns of capital flows and investment priorities.

But policymakers are still woefully unprepared for the changes, fixating instead on what will happen in the next three to six months, Kaushik Basu, the World Bank's chief economist, said.

"The big question that should concern us all is what will happen to the major drivers of growth and development: namely savings and investment," Basu told reporters ahead of the report's release.

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SHARIF AND PAKISTAN-INDIA

COMPETING PRESSURES AND THREATS: A LONG ROAD AHEAD FOR NAWAZ SHARIF

Vivek Katju

The Economic Times, May 15, 2013

In February 1999, the Pakistani defence services chiefs, including Pervez Musharraf, called on then Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Government House, Lahore. As the call concluded, a Pakistani minister emphatically told this writer that the government would not allow the army to disrupt the historic process initiated by the visit. Three months later, the guns boomed in Kargil.

Nawaz Sharif is reaching out to India in a gushing, warm Lahori embrace. But Delhi must not lose sight of the enduring realities of the Pakistani state. Howsoever much Sharif may wish that the Constitution be respected by all Pakistani institutions, the army will not give up its decisive role in the formulation of the country's security policies, nor its traditional reflexes towards India.

Undoubtedly, the elections were credible despite the violence. They are an important milestone in the political evolution of Pakistan. Two points stand out vis-a-vis the elections to the National Assembly.

First, they have diminished the spread of the PML(N) and the PPP. Sharif effectively represents only the Punjab - 118 of his 126 seats come from that province. The PPP with 31 seats is now effectively a Sindhi party, with only one seat in Punjab. And despite the fervour of the metropolitan youth, some subtle support from the intelligence agencies and media attention, the bulk of Imran Khan's 29 seats come from pockets of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, FATA and northern Punjab.

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