Chinese Premier Zhu arrives in Bombay, build economic ties
Chinese Premier Zhu arrives in Bombay, build economic ties
Jayashree Lengade, Reuters, Bombay
Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji arrived in India's financial center,
Bombay, on Tuesday on the second leg of a visit that Indian
officials said had helped ease decades of distrust between the
world's two most populous nations.
The talks between Zhu and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari
Vajpayee in New Delhi "provided a roadmap for the consolidation
and expansion and deepening of relations in a number of spheres,"
foreign ministry spokeswoman Nirupama Rao said.
"What this constitutes is a higher level of mutual
confidence ...and increased trust," she said. "So the outlook is
promising for the further development of relations."
Zhu, who arrived in India at a time when it is locked in a
dangerous armed stand-off with Beijing's close ally, Pakistan,
said stronger ties were a key part of China's foreign policy.
The leaders of India and China, which went to war in 1962 over
a border quarrel, said they were committed to closer economic
ties, despite slow progress in resolving the frontier dispute.
The two sides signed agreements to promote cooperation in
technology, science and space that Rao said were "concrete
indications of the growing cooperation".
Another Indian official said the talks with Zhu, the first
Chinese premier to visit India in a decade, went off
"exceptionally well."
Both sides said they recognized bilateral trade was
particularly weak at about US$2-$3 billion per year and the visit
to Bombay by Zhu, accompanied by a delegation of high-powered
Chinese business figures, was seen as spurring economic links.
China does $75 billion worth of trade with the United States.
Zhu, who is on a six-day visit to India, was due to speak at a
luncheon in Bombay hosted by key business figures on Wednesday.
Tight security was in place for Zhu's arrival as police kept
away Tibetan demonstrators protesting against China's occupation
of Tibet since 1949. Thousands of Tibetans fled Tibet and sought
refuge in neighboring India after the Chinese took over.
A spokesman for around 200 Tibetans announced plans for a 24-
hour sit-in hunger strike in Bombay to protest Zhu's visit.
Late on Wednesday, the Chinese leader will fly to Bangalore,
India's software hub.
"If Zhu's visit can help re-focus the relationship between the
two Asian giants from sporadic suspicion and long-term
indifference to sustained economic cooperation, he will have done
much to bring down the Chinese wall," the Times of India said.
India has long been concerned about Beijing's close
relationship with New Delhi's longtime foe, Pakistan, including
supplies of sensitive military technology.
New Delhi, outraged by a guerrilla attack on its parliament
last month, has mounted intense diplomatic and military pressure
on Pakistan to end what it calls cross-border terrorism,
particularly in the disputed Muslim majority region of Kashmir.
It has said it is waiting for Pakistan President Pervez
Musharraf to make good his pledge to crack down on Islamic
militants operating from his country before pulling out troops
from the Pakistan border.
The Indian official said the Chinese had agreed on the need to
fight the scourge of terrorism. "Like New Delhi, Beijing too is
haunted by the specter of terrorism, albeit on a smaller scale in
Xinjiang province," the Times of India said.
China is also wary of the growing U.S. presence in the region
brought on by its anti-terrorism war in Afghanistan and
Washington's diplomatic efforts to de-escalate tensions between
nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, analysts said.
Zhu's visit to India was the latest in a series of exchanges
with several countries to balance U.S. influence.
Zhu said India and China could work together to keep the peace
in Asia.