India, US should work together to make China observe rule of law, ex-diplomat Burns tells Rahul Gandhi

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 12

Former diplomat and current professor of diplomacy at Harvard, Nicholas Burns, on Friday said the biggest challenge India and US face is the growing power of authoritarian China and Russia, and the two nations should work together to make China observe the rule of law.

Speaking to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi virtually, Burns said Indian and US governments should combine forces to promote human freedom, democracy and rule of the people in the world.

“This is a powerful idea that Indians and Americans can bring together to the rest of the world. We are not looking for a conflict with China, but we are waging in a way, a battle of ideas with China,” Burns said, seeking Gandhi’s opinion on China at a time when the US Present Donald Trump has openly accused the Dragon land of exporting COVID-19 across the world.

Gandhi took a cautious position on the matter, suggesting positive cooperation with China without ever going into a war.

Gandhi also said that it’s difficult to make the democracy argument with authoritarianism at play within the two countries.

Speaking of India, where he said a unilateral disruptive leadership was in power in oblique references to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Gandhi said, “The most important battle from our perspective, yours and ours, is to actually bring back our countries to where they used to be — where we embrace our people and give a healing touch as opposed to this sort of aggressive politics that we are stuck in.”

Gandhi said while tolerance was the DNA of both India and the US he “doesn’t see that level of tolerance in the two nations anymore.”

“Those who divide Africans and Americans in the US, and Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs in India weaken the structure of the country and call themselves nationalists,” said the former Congress president in a veiled remark on both PM Modi and US President Trump.

Gandhi’s take on US and India together wishing a battle of ideas with China was, “We can’t have an authoritarian perspective internally and then make that argument. That argument has to be made from the foundation of democracy, within the country itself, within our countries.”

Burns however said as democracies India and US could self correct themselves by going to the ballot box, holding demonstrations, but that was not the case with authoritarian nations.

“We can’t decouple ourselves or delink ourselves from China. India, United States can be working together not to fight China but to make it observe the rule of law as we try to live together in this world.”

Gandhi rued what he called a disruptive regime at home and said he was hopeful of change.

“You take unilateral decisions, you do the biggest lockdown in the world, most rigorous lockdown in the world and then you have millions of manual laborers walking thousands of kilometres back home. So it is this unilateral episodic type of leadership. It’s very destructive. But it’s the flavour of the time, that’s the unfortunate thing. And we are fighting it. I’m hopeful new ideas will emerge.”

On the post-COVID world order, Burns said he disagreed with many people who say China is winning the pandemic war.

“I actually don’t see that. China certainly has extraordinary power in the world… What China lacks is the sophistication and openness of a democratic country like India or the United States. China has a fearful leadership. The Chinese system is not going to be flexible enough to accommodate the desires of the Chinese people for human freedom,” said Burns.