By Zarir Hussain
NATHU LA PASS, India – India and China reopened the famed Silk Road, allowing direct border trade between the world’s two most populous nations for the first time since their frontier war 44 years ago.
Chinese, Indian and Tibetan officials attended the opening ceremony held in driving rain and bitter cold at the 15,000-feet (4,545-metre) Nathu La Pass on the border between India’s Sikkim state and China’s Tibet region.
The chairman of China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, C. Phuntso, and chief minister of India’s Sikkim state Pawan Kumar Chamling marked the historic event by cutting a red ribbon.
“The reopening of the 563-kilometre Silk Route marks the beginning of a new era of hope and prosperity and improving bilateral between the two nations,” Phuntso told the small gathering of officials, traders and soldiers.
About 100 traders from each side then crossed the border and were welcomed on the other side with cheers, garlands, silk scarves, music and folk dancing.
“We hope the reopening of the silk route will improve relations between the two countries,” Sun Yuxi, China’s ambassador to India, told AFP.
“Today the border is open for traders and we hope very soon it will be open for tourists. We are excited and feeling very good.”
Soldiers from both sides, wearing jackets against the cold, chatted and took photographs of each other before the official ceremony at the windswept border post wedged between two mountain peaks.
The reopening of the pass marks the first direct trade link between the nuclear-armed Asian giants since they fought a brief but bitter border war in 1962.
A red banner erected on the Tibetan side read, “Warmest congratulations to the reopening of Sino-Indian Nathu La Pass border trade route”, while on the Indian side a yellow banner simply said, “Welcome to Nathu La”.
The main action on the Indian side of the border post will be at Sherathang where the business hub is located for the Chinese to trade their commodities.
The trade mart at Sherathang has sheds to handle customs, security, telecommunications and banking — the US dollar will be the currency used for trade.
In Tibet, the market at the village of Renqinggang has been reactivated but China plans to make the nearby town of Yadong, also known as Chomo in Tibetan, the biggest free-market border centre in southwest China.
India will be able to export 29 items ranging from textiles to tea, barley, rice and herbs. Chinese traders will be able to trade in 15 items including horses, goats, sheep, yak hair, goatskin, wool and raw silk.
Trade will start each year on June 1 and continue until September 30 after which heavy snow makes the cloud-shrouded area impassable.
Trade has surged between the neighbours with their combined consumer market of 2.3 billion people. Bilateral trade grew by 37.5 percent to hit 18.73 billion dollars last year, according to Chinese data.
Thursday’s re-opening became possible after China told India three years ago it would drop its claim to Sikkim, a former Buddhist kingdom which merged with India in 1975.
Ties were further cemented last year when Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh, agreed to build a new “bridge of friendship … to lead both of us to the future.”
Indian officials have said the pass could become an alternative to a sea route for trade with China.
Initially, however, trade will be modest and similar to goods traded during the days of the old Silk Road that linked China via Central Asia to Europe.
