THE HINDU Editorial Vocabulary-December 28, 2016- Topic 2
Days after a senior Pakistani General suggested that
India should shun its “enmity” with Pakistan and join the $46 billion
China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project, the Chinese foreign ministry has
called the offer a “goodwill gesture”, exhorting India to take it up. At face
value, the suggestion is odd. India has no dialogue with Pakistan at present,
and has opposed the project, bilaterally with China “at the highest level” as
well as at the UN. Relations with China have deteriorated considerably since President
Xi Jinping’s visit to Pakistan to announce the project in April 2015.
Initially, New Delhi sought to play down its significance, as it was made just
weeks before Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelled to China, and the
government would have hoped to dissuade Beijing from pushing the more
objectionable projects that run through disputed territory. However, not only
has the corridor taken shape rapidly, China and Pakistan have been drawn into a
closer embrace, with Pakistan investing considerable resources in securing
Chinese officials working on CPEC, and China redrawing its plans for the One
Belt One Road to Central Asia to incorporate Pakistan’s interests. China has
defended Pakistan against India’s efforts to pin it down with regard to support
to terror groups, and to draw an obstructionist equivalence with India’s
Nuclear Suppliers Group membership application. Given all this, the General’s
suggestion can only be understood to have been made rhetorically, especially as
it was accompanied by allegations of India’s “anti-Pakistan activities and
subversion” in Balochistan.
While there can be little expectation of any room for
India in CPEC at present, there is space for India to step back and see where
China and Pakistan want to go with it. The offer to India was made along with
offers to other “neighbouring countries”. Already, Iran wants Gwadar to be a
“sister” port to Chabahar, and Turkmenistan and other Central Asian republics
have shown interest in the warm-water port that will be a nodal point for goods
through Pakistan to the Chinese city of Kashgar. Further north, despite its
problems on terror from Pakistan, Afghanistan is becoming a nodal point for
China’s connectivity projects to Iran. The meeting among Russian, Chinese and
Pakistani officials on Afghanistan this week, and Russian engagement with the
Taliban, indicate much more is changing in the region than just the alignment
of highways and tunnels. While India has done well to shore up relations with
others in the region, it cannot afford to be blindsided by their involvement
with the OBOR project and Chinese plans. CPEC is no longer a project in
Pakistan, but one that runs through it, a project that will link 64 countries.
Vocabulary
Shun: persistently avoid, ignore, or reject (someone or something) through
antipathy or caution.
Example: He shunned fashionable society
Synonyms: avoid, evade, eschew, steer clear of, shy away
from, fight shy of
Enmity: the state or feeling of being actively opposed or hostile to someone or
something.
Example: Enmity between Protestants and Catholics
Synonyms: hostility, animosity, antagonism, friction, antipathy, animus
Gesture: a movement of part of the body, especially a hand or the head, to express
an idea or meaning.
Example: Alex made a gesture of apology
Synonyms: signal, sign, motion, indication, gesticulation, show
Exhorting: strongly encourage or urge someone to do something.
Example: The media have been exhorting people to turn out for the demonstration
Synonyms: urge, encourage, call on, enjoin, charge, press, bid, appeal
to, entreat
Deteriorated: become progressively worse.
Example: Relations between the countries had deteriorated sharply
Synonyms: worsen, decline, degenerate, fail, slump, slip, go
downhill
Dissuade: persuade someone not to take a particular course of action.
Example: His friends tried to dissuade him from flying
Synonyms: discourage from, deter from, prevent from, divert
from, stop from
Embrace: an act of holding someone closely in one's arms.
Example: They were locked in an embrace
Synonyms: hug, cuddle, squeeze, clinch, caress, clasp, bear
hug
Rhetorical: of, relating to, or concerned with the art of rhetoric.
Example: Repetition is a common rhetorical device
Synonyms: stylistic, oratorical, linguistic, verbal
Alignment: arrangement in a straight line, or in correct or appropriate relative
positions.
Example: The tiles had slipped out of alignment
Shore: support or hold up something with props or beams.
Example: Rescue workers had to shore up the building, which was in danger of
collapse
Synonyms: prop up, hold
up, bolster, support, brace, buttress