DailyOh! Why Rajnath Singh is in Russia with Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe
In 1949, Mao Zedong was humiliated by Joseph Stalin in Moscow.
From about 11.30 am on Monday morning till about 10.30 pm on Monday night, Indian and Chinese military commanders remained in a meeting. Not one meeting after the other – just one long meeting that lasted for about 11 hours. Remember this figure the next time you feel like cribbing about long and meaningless meetings. You may say your meetings have no outcomes with the most significant decision being on when to hold the next meeting. Well, even India and China also reached no deal after the 11 hours of talks.
The only conclusion: there will be further talks.
Today, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi came face-to-face over FaceTime as part of the trilateral foreign ministers’ meeting. To complete the triangle, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also joined the meeting over videoconference.
Tomorrow, Russia will host Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and China’s Defence Minister Wei Fenghe. Together, the two have been invited by Russia to attend its annual Victory Day parade on June 24, along with Indian and Chinese marching contingents. The Victory Day parade every year is held in Russia on May 9 to mark the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945. But this year has been like no other and so the parade is being held close to two months later.
But we were talking about meetings. So, India-China meetings are likely to go on. How has Russia come in between the two? Well, because Russia is considered the only country that China could still be listening to. Russia was the only nation China had briefed at the height of the Doklam crisis of 2017.
Russia and China, however, haven’t always been the best of friends. In fact, they were quite like enemies to begin with. During the Cold War, China and the USSR were rivals. Both wanted control over the Communist movement. Their relationship began improving after the Soviet Union ceased to be a union. That happened in 1991. But one incident in 1949 was particularly hurtful for the Chinese.
On December 6 that year, Mao Zedong took a train ride to the Soviet capital, Moscow. The war was barely over and he was fearful of attacks by Nationalist dissidents. He traveled in an armoured car, with sentries posted every hundred meters along the tracks. Mao disembarked in the Russian city of Shenyang to check if there were posters of him. There were a few. But what hurt Mao was that there were more posters of Joseph Stalin. This, Mao thought, was the handiwork of his own party colleague Gao Gang. Now, Mao was furious. The train in which Mao was travelling had an armoured car coupled to it. That car carried some gifts Gao wanted to be given to Stalin. On short fuse, Mao ordered that the car be uncoupled and the gifts be sent back to Gao.
Mao reached Moscow on December 16. He was then made to wait for weeks to meet Stalin. You may think Mao would have met other leaders, given they were all communists, as he waited for Stalin, but Stalin ensured Mao wasn’t allowed to meet anyone till he had himself met him. Stalin just wanted to show Mao who the boss was. The thing about international relations, and all other relations, is that they are subject to change.
Talking of international relations, the India-US relations too seem to be under a bit of a strain. The US, on Monday, restricted chartered flights from India. On what ground? The US has accused India of "unfair and discriminatory practices" by violating a treaty governing aviation between the two countries. Under current circumstances, if a US flight can’t land in India, a Indian flight can't land in the US. Now, some flights are landing and taking off. The deal is that these flights should only be used for repatriation of stranded citizens. The US says India maybe using repatriation charters to let general people land on US soil. These, however, are mere allegations and a government response on this front is awaited.
The US, meanwhile, has opened another front. The US has suspended H1B and many other work visas for a year. While the move applies to all countries, the impact on India could be the hardest. Donald Trump says the move was necessary because the US is suffering huge job losses. Within the US, companies say the move is only going to hurt US businesses that rely on foreign talent to run their operations. The visa bans could help Trump in the upcoming US elections. Who is likely to be hurt? Read this to know.
But what is a visa anyway? Visa, our Word Of The Day, traces its origin to the French word videre ‘to see’. In Latin, visa means a paper which has been seen.
Now, visa stands for Visitors International Stay Admission. This ‘admission’ is again based on a piece of paper which authorises a person’s entry and stay in another country for a particular period of time.
Some visas are more difficult to get than other visas. The most difficult, however, is the task of getting a North Korean visa. Now, why would anybody want that visa? North Korea is the most secretive country on Earth and the nosy kind of people like to take their noses to whatever they find secretive. If travel is about exploring, wouldn’t one want to explore the unexplored? North Korea is that unexplored destination. Before you start checking for tickets, know this. North Korea doesn’t like explorers. Whoever they don’t like, they don’t let in.
It might be difficult for humans to cross North Korean borders, but some leaflets from South Korea are managing to enter the country. What can Kim Jong-un do if he finds a pamphlet that has sneaked into his territory? Shoot it, seize it, tear it apart?
He can opt for any one or all of the above depending on his anger level. For now, North Korea has decided a leaflet-for-leaflet approach. This will also ensure nobody goes blind because this is no eye-for-an-eye tactic. What are these pamphlets about and why this sudden leafleting between the two nations? Here’s your answer.
The use of leaflet to win wars is however not new. Aircraft don’t just drop bombs, they have been dropping leaflets too. Airborne leaflet distribution is a form of psychological warfare in which leaflets are scattered in the air. South Korea has been using balloons for the purpose.
In October 1870, during the Siege of Paris amid the Franco-Prussian War, a French balloon coming from the city dropped government proclamations over Prussian troops that read:
“Paris defies the enemy. The whole of France rallies. Death to the invaders. Foolish people, shall we always throttle one another for the pleasure and proudness of Kings? Glory and conquest are crimes; defeat brings hate and desire for vengeance. Only one war is just and holy; that of independence.”
The world has been fighting wars. The world continues to fight wars. Currently, the big war is being fought against coronavirus.
In the 24 hours preceding today morning, close to 11,000 people in India defeated the virus. We mean they recovered. But over 15,000 also tested positive over the same time. Over 4,45,000 in India have tested positive so far. Globally, that figure goes above 90,00,000.
So you know what to do and what not to do.
Boost your immunity and don’t forget the mask.
Stay safe.
We will be back tomorrow and let you know if the marathon meetings have brought out any results.