Is Kolkata a focal point in the trade with China?

2 of the world’s most populous countries are located side by side. Each country has insatiable demand for growth. Bereft of any conflict, nothing could be more conducive to the 2 countries growing rich at each other’s expense.

For India and China that is not to be. Reports like ‘China Plans Balkanisation of India’ and China’s reported push for establishing presence in Gwadar (Pakistan), Myanmar controlled Coco Island in East Indian Ocean, and Hambantota in southern Sri Lanka are too real and threatening for India to harbor any hope of goodwill towards the northern neighbor.

For India though the machinations to weaken the country are not new. One recalls the Nov 27, 2000 article in the Guardian, India feels threat of Balkanisation that painted a grim picture of situations in India.

Today, 9 years hence, India has not only not broken up, but instead successfully dealt with those problems.

The challenge to contain Chinese threat is immense, if only because that country is more powerful and wealthy than India. But one feels reasonably sure that in another ‘9 years’ from today India will find itself on firm footing for anyone to even dare write any ‘plan to balkanise’ the country.

With the above in perspective, let me take you to this interesting article, West Bengal Trade With Guangdong Set To Boom, by Chris Devonshire-Ellis.

Readers may like to post their thoughts on the matter.