NEW DELHI, 14 February 2007 — Adding a domestic touch to Chinese diplomacy, the visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing yesterday wished all Indians a happy Chinese New Year, which is just a week away, before heading for talks with his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee.
Their talks follow the visit of China’s President Hu Jintao in November. The two countries had then agreed upon a 10-point plan to deepen economic and strategic ties and on launching a hotline between their foreign ministers.
Issues that the two ministers discussed yesterday included: increase in air links and easing visa rules; enhancing strategic cooperation and strengthening trade ties. They also discussed a border dispute that led to war between the two countries in 1962. The confidence-building measures, taken by ministers, included starting of the hotline and holding talks to implement the 10-point program.
Expressing optimism on progress of Sino-India ties, an Indian official said: “Bilateral ties are warming slowly. We have peaceful borders and trade is growing.” The Sino-Indian boundary dispute has not been a roadblock in their strengthening ties at other levels. They aim to double their two-way trade to $40 billion by 2010.
Global attention is, however, more focused on today’s trilateral talks between foreign ministers of India, China and Russia. The first summit-level meeting between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Hu Jintao in the trilateral framework was held in the Russian city of St. Petersburg in July 2006, on the sidelines of the G-8 summit. The tone for today’s meeting was set during Putin’s talks with Manmohan here last month. “Important global issues will be discussed. But we must bear in mind that it is not targeted at any third country,” an official source said.
It will be the first structured meeting, at the ministerial level, giving a thrust to the trilateral forum agenda. While global issues and measures needed to widen their sphere of cooperation at the international level will be discussed, the focus is likely to be on Iran.
Ahead of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s visit to India, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mikhail Kamynin, according to a Russian news agency, said in Moscow: “Cooperation between the three nations is not something virtual. It is based on the countries’ common approaches to the basic issues of global development in the 21st century.”
The meeting aims to strengthen “the democratic nature of the new world order, on an understanding of the importance of multilateral efforts for maintaining strategic stability at the global and regional levels, and on the recognition of the UN’s central role in this process,” Kamynin said. The three ministers are likely to discuss a compromise formula to persuade Iran to resume negotiations before International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) submits its crucial report that could lead to harsh sanctions against the country.
“China demands Iran should follow international rules. In the meantime, China believes that this issue should be solved in the framework of the IAEA,” Zhao Gancheng, a South Asia expert at the Shanghai Institute of International Studies, China’s influential think tank, said.
“India is against the use of force to make Iran stop its nuclear program,” the Indian government source said.
