India and Central Asian States: cooperation in 1990-2000-s: Chinese view

People'sRepublic of China and Republic of India are sharing common interests in the region of Central Asia. Chinese researchers (Huasheng Zhaoand others), describing two big countries diplomacy, commonly use the formula "cooperation and competition" with accent on"competition". India and Central Asian States established diplomatic and trade relations in early 1990s, but nevertheless all contacts weren'tat the high priority level - from geopolitical point of view, region was "neighboring", but not so important in terms of Indian geopolitics. Forthe reason of its own development, India supported plans for oil and gas transit from those rich-resource countries such as Kazakhstan andUzbekistan to the West Asia through the territory of Afghanistan by pipelines. But since the beginning of the US and NATO invasion inAfghanistan and antiterrorist operation, these plans have been denied. In 2000s India's position on regional cooperation, mainly in securityquestions, has changed dramatically - through the international organization's mechanisms (such as entering SCO with observer status) andbilateral treaties it have been focusing on small projects in different spheres, such as staff training, network and communication cooperationetc. In case of China, Indian activities were something more than interference in "Chinese zone of responsibility" within Central Asia andShanghai Cooperation Organization - it was a threat to China and Pakistan, particularly military actions - India have signed a treaty withTajikistan that leads to establish Indian military base in this Central Asian state. However under the Russia's pressure this achievement ofIndian diplomacy was cut down. Some Indian projects were connected with trade and economic cooperation - as for early 1990s jointcommissions on trade and development (established in all Central Asian states) have less power than direct trade of small ventures. So thereal volume of trade operations couldn't satisfy both sides. As for the 2000s, India expands governmental organizations programs to thosecountries to provide new project-oriented cooperation and so-called "soft-power" mechanisms in different spheres (such as Indian Councilfor Cultural Relations (ICCR) and Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC)). New concept of Central Asia in Indian diplomacy,published previously in Annual Report of Ministry of Defense of India (2002-2003) put a new agenda on cooperation with "extendedneighbor" and make a China worry about it.

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