NEW DELHI, 23 November 2006 — Visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao said yesterday that his country welcomed improving relations between India and Pakistan.
“China welcomes and supports improvement in relations between India and Pakistan,” Hu Jintao, the first Chinese president to visit India in a decade, said in a keynote address in the Indian capital.
Describing President Hu’s visit to India as successful, Indian Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat said it would take Indo-China ties to new heights.
Referring to Indian and Chinese civilization having “interacted with each other in the crucible created by history and geography,” Shekhawat emphasized the need to further strengthen ties. “Let us harness our energies in working for the comprehensive all-round development of our relations...in a cooperative rather than competitive framework, thus building a strong and robust relationship that is an example for the rest of the world. It is my firm belief that your visit has brought us closer to that meritorious goal,” Shekhawat said at a function organized by Indian Council for World Affairs (ICWA) in honor of the Chinese president.
Hu was scheduled to leave for Islamabad today after his four-day trip to India, during which the Asian giants pledged to double their trade to $40 billion by 2010.
Hu said China wanted peace and development in South Asia, after agreeing in talks with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to accelerate efforts to find a solution to their border dispute.
“China does not seek any selfish gains in South Asia,” he said.
New Delhi says Beijing occupies 38,000 square kilometers of Indian territory in Kashmir, while Beijing claims 90,000 square kilometers in Indian-administered Arunachal Pradesh.
Hu said Beijing was ready to play a “constructive role” for the promotion of peace in the region.
The Chinese president said a peaceful and prosperous South Asia was beneficial for both Asia and the world.
Welcoming the decision of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to accept China as an observer, Hu expressed Beijing’s readiness to cooperate with SAARC in various fields. Hu also welcomed New Delhi’s recent induction in the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) and voiced support for India’s participation in the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the East Asia Summit last year. “China supports India’s participation in the SCO and the East Asia Summit and welcomes India becoming a new member of the Asia-Europe Meeting,” Hu stressed.
China is keen to enhance mutual political trust between the neighbors, consolidate business links and establish a strategic partnership to help make the 21st century an Asian century, the Chinese leader said.
The comments by Hu, the first Chinese president to visit India in a decade and the second ever, were seen as an attempt to reassure New Delhi over fears that Beijing was trying to encircle India and contain its rise. Outside the heavily guarded convention center, about a dozen Tibetan activists tried to break through police barricades and protest against Hu. They waved Tibetan flags and shouted anti-China slogans before they were detained by police.
Tibetan activists say more than 50 protesters had been detained since Monday, among hundreds who have demonstrated in New Delhi and other cities across India against what they call China’s illegal occupation of Tibet.
In Islamabad, Hu is expected to discuss a civilian nuclear cooperation deal with Pakistan, seen as a counterbalance to a landmark nuclear deal between India and the United States which is awaiting some final approvals by US Congress.
But Hu said China and India were true friends and partners and Beijing was ready to work with New Delhi to increase mutual political trust. He added both needed to remove barriers to trade and investment.
An early settlement of the dispute over their Himalayan border would go a long way in contributing to peace and stability between the two countries, he said.
The two countries have made little progress in several rounds of negotiations over resolving the dispute over their 3,500 km border. Although the two sides were seen to be working toward accepting the status quo and hammering out a swap deal, Beijing’s apparent reluctance to give up claims over Arunachal Pradesh has blocked a solution, Indian officials say. “The early settlement of the border issue ... is a shared wish of the two peoples,” Hu said. “China is ready to work with India ... in the overall interest of the two countries to actively seek a fair, just, mutually acceptable solution through friendly consultation on a equal footing.”
Indian Doctor
An Indian doctor who died while treating Chinese troops during the Sino-Japanese war more than half a century ago is to be a symbol of warming ties between Beijing and New Delhi.
The family of Dwarkanath Kotnis, a doctor who served Chinese soldiers during the 1937-1945 war and died at the front in 1942, said they will meet visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao in Mumbai today.
