[Marxism] India's Prime Minister Meets with Cuban Foreign Minister: An Exchange

[Sukla Sen <suklasenp@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

That's evidently too much and too unreal to expect.

This only goes to show that the Indian ruling elite is
not prepared to deposit all their proverbial eggs in a
single, i.e. the US, basket, and the highly complex
and evolved nature of the game it is engaged with.

Just days back Iran was accorded the status of a
permanent observer to the SAARC.
(India is reportedly at this moment carrying out a
joint naval exercise with China. Ref.:
<http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200704140325.htm>.
The news item is reproduced below.)

These incidents evidently show up the vacuity of a
certain strand of rather cliched Leftist/"nationalist"
argument (or rhetoric?) that "India has sold out its
sovereignty!" (Interestingly many of those selling
this line never acknowledged that India had ever been
sovereign. They obviously elect to overlook the rather
minor problem that one cannot "sell out" something,
which one never had in the first place. Nor can one
sell the same thing out over and over - without
repurchasing it in between! 
Similarly, as I am rather fond to point out, many of
us for the first time recognised India as a
"democracy" only after June 26 1975!
It only brings to my mind a famous line from a short
story of Tagore: "Kadambini [the female protagonist of
the story] had to die to establish that she had not
died.")

Having said that, we must also recognise the
transmutation of the Indian elite over time since
Independence and the (largely) consequent growing
proximity between India and the US reflecting Indian
elite's obscene obsession with gaining a place at the
global high table by means fair or foul, legitimate or
illegitimate.

The event cited below is hardly any harbinger of any
radical departure from the evolving and unfolding
pattern.

Sukla

--- Sayan  wrote: 

One hopes that India would go beyond the usual
exchange of diplomatic niceties and the mere rhetoric
of non-aligned-ness, and start strengthening concrete
alliances with Cuba and especially with Venezuela and
Bolivia -- the emerging pole of worldwide resistance
to the status quo. 

-Sayan. 

GRANMA INTERNACIONAL, CUBA 

April 13, 2007 

India's Prime Minister Meets with Cuban Foreign
Minister 

During his first day in Delhi, Cuban Foreign Minister
Felipe Perez Roque was officially received by Indian
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to whom he presented a
letter from Cuban President Fidel Castro. 

The Indian leader fondly recalled his meeting with
Fidel last September during the 14th Summit of the
Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Havana. He pointed out
the important and active role played by Cuba at the
head of the Movement and spoke about India's
willingness to continue working to strengthen and
widen the scope of the NAM on the international stage.


[...] 

Perez Roque thanked India for its firm and historic
position in support of the just struggle of the Cuban
people against the nearly half century US blockade. 

The Cuban minister also met with Sonia Gandhi,
president of the governing Congress Party and widow of
Rajiv Gandhi. 

In the afternoon, Perez Roque had official
conversations with his counterpart Indian Foreign
Minister Anand Sharma at the Hyderabad Palace in
Delhi. 

Sharma held a reception for Perez Roque and his
delegation with the presence of other Indian
ministers, leaders of the main parties that form the
government coalition and representatives from the
diplomatic corps in Delhi. 

The island's delegation also took part in an activity
in solidarity with Cuba held at the National Islamic
University of Delhi, organized by the National
Solidarity with Cuba Committee and a students and
workers group from the university. During the event,
Perez Roque spoke about the importance of India's
support of Cuba in the fight against the US blockade
[...] 

END

India, China Navy begin joint exercises

Qingdao (China), April 14 (PTI): Amid the growing
Chinese naval presence around India, the navies of the
two Asian giants will this week hold a series of
maneouvers off the Chinese coast to enhance mutual
trust and better understanding in providing secure
maritime lines of communications.

The naval exercises are being held under the landmark
bilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) inked in
May last year to step up military exchanges and
cooperation in tune with the growing political,
economic and commercial ties between them.

The exchanges will provide a unique opportunity for
understanding drills and procedures followed by the
naval ships of the two countries in a cooperative
environment, official sources said as two Indian Naval
Ships, INS Rana and INS Ranjit, both Destroyer Class
warships, arrived at Qingdao Port yesterday.

The present Port Call at Qingdao, also the
Headquarters of the PLA Navy North Sea Fleet, from
April 12-16, will further enhance understanding
between the navies of the two countries, the sources
said.

Naval exchanges are an important step towards creating
better understanding in this field, he said.

Concurrent with the visit of the two naval ships,
Deputy Chief of Naval Staff of the Indian Navy, Vice
Admiral RP Suthan, will also visit Beijing and Qingdao
and will interact with senior officers of the Chinese
People's Liberation Army.

Sources point out that cooperation between the two
navies has always been an important part of the
defence cooperation between the Indian Armed Forces
and the PLA.

The last India-China joint naval exercise was held in
2005. PLA Navy Task Group comprising of two PLA naval
ships Shenzhen and Weishanhu visited Kochi in November
2005 and held search and rescue exercises with the
Indian Navy.

Prior to that, in November 2003, INS Ranjit, INS
Kulish and INS Jyoti visited Shanghai and held search
and rescue exercises with the PLA Navy for the first
time.

The navies of the two sides have also exchanged
high-level visits. In April 2005, Vice Chief of Naval
Staff Vice Admiral Yashwant Prasad visited China. In
October 2005, Rear Admiral Zhang Yongyi of PLA Navy
visited India.

At the same time, there is growing concern in New
Delhi on the increasing presence of Chinese navy
around India, especially in Pakistan, Myanmar and Sri
Lanka.

China is actively assisting Pakistan in building a
strategic naval base and facility at Gwadar. China is
also in the process of replicating such a facility in
Myanmar, enhancing Chinese naval presence in the
Arabian Sea as well as the Bay of Bengal.

Last month, China and Sri Lanka signed an agreement
for the development of the Hambantota port development
project which could also see increased Chinese
presence in the Indian Ocean. 


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