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.