Monday, July 17, 2006

Nathu La (border trade)


As soon after the leaders of China and India reopened the boarder trade through the Nathu La pass on July 6, the Chinese Army officers shake hands, hugged and posing for photographs with Indian soldiers, most of them infantrymen form the Black Cat Division raised way back in 1941 to guard the Sino-Indian boarder along Sikkim. After all, 2006 is nothing like 1967, when there was an artillery duel on the 14,400 feet high pass. Border trade was halted long before that in the wake of the 1962 India-China war. These are different time, Last September; our soldiers play volleyball right in Nathu La with Chinese army men. Indian-Chinese soldiers make eye-to-eye talk with each other everyday, that one day the two Asian giants will reopen the trade, and are always on maximum alert. Because of the soldiers Hope in boarder, the Nathu La has reopened.

At the 2 degree C, a drizzle anything, hundreds of guests on the Indian side shiver, but the warmth of the occasion was palpable and trade were eager to take the fabled Silk Route used by merchants in the 19th century. What about the trade itself? The people in Sikkim were amazed that India, and China two powerhouses are hoping to boost business by trading in things like Yak tail & Hair. Most of the things we can import form China are yak tail, yak hair, goatskin, sheepskin, horse, goat, sheep common salt and china clay. India’s export list includes, blankets, bicycle, tea, coffee, liquor, herbs and hardware. There was a long queue of some 80 Indian traders awaiting the nod to be driven over to the China. Many like to import Electronic goods. India-China trade rose to 18.7 billion $. This year it expected to reach 22-23 billion $. Nathu La, the third boarder trading point to be opened, is the most important because it controlled almost 80% of trade in the pre-war era. India likes to have a friendly relationship with neighbor countries, hope this trade must give us some.

10 comments:

Keshi said...

heyy Jeevan..off topic, d u know which parts of India has blocked blogger?

Keshi.

starry said...

good to see that India and China are coming together.Its about time.

Jeevan said...

Keshi - i dont know, they are saying the Indian Government has blocked. any way i can read blog through, bloglines & pkblogs.com.

Starry - That's Nice to have trade with the best country.

Butterflies said...

thats a great improvement!

Movie Mazaa said...

It sure is!I dont believe this is happening. Or perhaps, I shudnt sound so surprised.

Anonymous said...

This is good news. Hope we don't get fooled as we were in 1962.

Shuuro said...

Trade is good, jeevan. But in this excitement, when we look at the real boarder issue, which caused our relationship with china to be antagonized, we haven't made any progress and we are still exchanging maps after many rounds of talks. They can't even formally identify disputed boundary!. We should be cautious in our approach before we rejoice over our new found friendship and we must heed to many security analysts advice on our neighbor's designs.

My days(Gops) said...

nalladhu oru maatram oru munetram.
nice info jeevan..

Jeevan said...

Shuba – yes

Velu – we can take what ever is happening is for good.

Karthik – me too hope these things should be an start for further relationship

Shuuro – whatever plan they put there are some opposite, Hope that the every thing should go well. The security should be very tight in the borders, in this terror situations now in the world.

Jeevan said...

Gops - THanks, nice line:)