China's Li Peng in India to put ties on track
China's Li Peng in India to put ties on track
BOMBAY (Reuters): China's parliament chief Li Peng arrived in
Bombay on Tuesday, the first stop on a nine-day visit to India
which analysts say could help iron out differences between the
world's two most populous countries.
Li, China's second-most powerful leader, arrived with a
delegation of about 120 people, the chief protocol officer of the
government of Maharashtra state told Reuters.
He was due to meet Maharashtra governor P.C. Alexander later
on Tuesday. Li will travel from Bombay, India's financial hub, to
the capital New Delhi on Thursday morning.
Relations between the two Asian giants, which fought a brief
border war in 1962, have been strained since India conducted a
series of nuclear tests in 1998.
But analysts said China wanted good ties with India and Li's
January 9-17 visit showed Beijing recognized India's growing
influence in Asia.
"Li Peng's visit shows that the Chinese are practical. They
want to put aside the controversies created after India's nuclear
weaponization," former Indian foreign secretary J.N. Dixit told
Reuters.
"China recognizes India is an important nation and it does not
make any sense to have an antagonistic relationship with New
Delhi," he said.
Concerns
India's main concern about its relations with China are
China's military assistance to Pakistan, a flood of cheap Chinese
consumer goods into India and a 40-year-old border dispute.
Li, chairman of China's National People's Congress, is due to
meet Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, leading
industrialists and heads of India's booming software sector
during his trip.
He will be in the Indian capital from January 11 until January
13 for talks with government officials, business associations,
foreign policy experts and lawmakers.
The final leg of his tour will take him to Bangalore, India's
information technology hub in the south.
On Monday, politicians from several parties, including the
ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, asked New Delhi to use Li's visit
to tell China firmly about Indian concern over the flood of
Chinese consumer goods and China's military aid to Pakistan.
Industry groups say the entry of Chinese-made goods such as
toys, locks, sports shoes and bicycles had hurt Indian
manufacturers, at least for the short term.
"It's a transitional phase (coming in of Chinese goods). Our
manufacturers will adjust and soon be able to compete," said
Gurpal Singh, director of the Confederation of Indian Industry.
"Chinese goods are not only coming into India, but into
Southeast Asian countries as well," Singh said.
For much of the past 40 years ties between the two countries have
been cool.
China defeated India in the brief 1962 border war and the two
sides have for decades harbored rival claims to parts of the
Kashmir region to India's north and parts of the northeastern
Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim.
But on the trade front, the situation has improved in recent
years. Bilateral trade, worth only $265 million in 1991, when
India kicked off its economic reforms, rose to $2.33 billion in
the first 10 months of 2000.