By Amalendu Kundu/TNN
Gangtok – China’s sudden decision to defer the opening of border trade through Nathu La pass has come as a jarring note in the improvement of relations on the Sino-Indian border.
It appears that the Chinese ambassador to India had earlier this month said that facilities for opening the trade route were not completed on the Chinese side of the border. His remarks came shortly before a visit by Union home minister Shivraj Patil to Beijing and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to New York where he met Chinese president Hu Jintao, sources said here on Wednesday.
Officials who monitor the border were even more surprised because according to reports available with them there was already a road connecting Nathu La and Yatung, a town in Tibet, 37 km from the border. It is now believed that China would like to time the start the border trade with the completion of the Gormo-Lhasa rail link, likely by the middle of next year.
With the completion of the rail link, it would be possible for Chinese to make full use of Kolkata port through the Nathu La pass. Indian authorities, however, fear that once the rail link is completed, China would be in a position to dump cheap consumer goods in the Indian market through the Nathu La border. The access to a warm water port would also be of strategic advantage to China in Tibet.
On Wednesday, just five days before the scheduled opening of the Nathu La pass to border trade, the Sikkim government received a communication from the external affairs ministry that the inauguration would be postponed till March-April next year, advisor to Sikkim chief minister B B Gooroong said. The decision had been taken by the external affairs ministry in consultation with the Chinese ambassador in New Delhi.
