ISAS Briefs

When Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke in Beijing, during his visit from 13 – 15 January 2008, of a ‘historic need’ for India and China to work together, he was looking beyond the border dispute that has plagued relations for half a century to freeing millions of the world’s poorest from disease and economic deprivation. Paradoxically, this goal, and not any misplaced nationalistic or protectionist sentiment, forced him to decline Chinese requests for a free trade agreement (FTA).