Sushma, Yi meet for 3 hrs
Keen to improve bilateral relations after the Narendra Modi Government assumed office two weeks ago, Foreign Ministers of India and China on Sunday discussed an entire gamut of issues here, including the long-standing boundary dispute, incursions and enhancing trade and investment opportunities.
Signalling that Beijing wanted to hasten up the process of better ties, China made its intentions clear by sending its Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who is also the Special Envoy of President Xi Jinping, to New Delhi to hold talks with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. Yi will also call on Modi and President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday.
The two Foreign Ministers held three-hour talks along with their respective delegations on the contentious boundary dispute, which has not been solved since more than 50 years and two countries fighting a war in 1962.
Swaraj and Yi reviewed the progress made so far on the talks between Special Representatives of two countries on the dispute besides issuance of stapled visas by China to certain category of Indians and construction of dams on the Brahamaputra. Indian officials refrained from specifying these issues and said “perennial” bilateral matters were discussed between the two Ministers.
“An entire gamut of bilateral ties were discussed during a ‘cordial and substantive’ engagement between the two Ministers,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said after the talks, adding Wang was effusive in his praise for the new Government saying it had injected new vitality into an ancient civilization.
“The international community is closely following developments in India and the Chinese and Indian dreams have a lot of commonalities,” the Chinese leader was quoted as by the spokesperson.
The talks were described as “cordial, useful, productive and substantive” by the spokesperson, who said, “Even while there was a determination to add new content and substance to the relationship, there was an understanding that respect for the sensitivities and aspirations of each other was an essential part of expansion of bilateral relations.”
However, the spokesperson did not specify the issues, saying, “The perennials of India-China engagement are well known to you so I will not list them in a detailed manner but would like to say all issues of significance were raised and discussed in a frank manner.”
The Chinese minister said his country welcomes and supports development of India and also that China was ready to engage with the new government as the two leaders felt that there was untapped potential for growth of economic ties.
The two leaders discussed ways to increase Chinese investments in India through setting up of industrial parks, various infrastructure projects among others. There was also a discussion on how to address India’s concern of huge trade deficit of nearly $40 billion, the officials said. China is India’s biggest trading partner with two-way trade standing close to $65 billion.
The two Ministers also explored the possibilities for engagement during the course of the year at high levels — both in terms of bilateral visits and meetings on the margins of various multilateral meets, in which leaders from both the countries are likely to participate.
Noting that potential exists for intensive engagement of leaderships of India and China, Akbaruddin said, “By our count if we take the possible engagements likely between our senior leadership and that of China, I could easily say that there are likely to be at least half a dozen such meetings.”
Elaborating on the proposed high-level exchanges, he said “By senior leadership I mean President, Vice-President, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister,” the spokesperson said and termed the meeting between Swaraj and Wang as “productive beginning between the new Government of India and the Chinese Government.”
Asked if the issue of counter-terrorism was raised, the Joint Secretary in the China division of External Affairs Ministry, Gautam Bambawale, said the matter did “come up” and noted that there was an India-China joint working group on the issue. Wang appreciated India’s position on the recent terror incidents in China, he said. Asked if South China Sea issue figured during the talks, the officials said all “perennial” issues of bilateral, regional and international nature were discussed comprehensively.
Swaraj also sought increase in number of pilgrims for Kailash Mansoravar Yatra as well as more routes to the holy shrine and thanked the visiting ministry for keeping the cost of the Yatra on the Chinese side constant for the last so many years.
On possible participation of President Pranab Mukherjee in celebrations in China marking 60 years of Panchsheel, the Spokesperson said the government is yet to take a decision. Panchsheel is a set of five principles of peace proposed by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his Chinese counterpart Zhou Enlai in 1954.
China raised the issue of Tibet and India reiterated its position that Tibet was a part of the Chinese territory and it will not allow Tibetans to conduct political activities against China in India, officials said adding this meeting was more to understand each other’s positions on various strategic and crucial issues in the India-China relationship.