New Delhi: Recriminations between India
and China over Arunachal Pradesh and other issues are expected
to figure when the foreign ministers of the two countries meet
on the sideline of a trilateral meeting next week in
Bangalore.
The trilateral meeting of RIC (Russia, India and
China) will be attended by External Affairs Minister S M
Krishna, his Chinese and Russian counter parts Yang Jiechi and
Sergei Lavrov respectively on October 27.
The three-nation meeting takes place in the backdrop
of recent unsavory developments in Sino-Indian relationship
particularly on the issue of Arunachal Pradesh and Chinese
incursions into Indian territory.
These issues are also expected to figure during a
possible meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao who has expressed his desire to
meet his Indian counterpart on the sidelines of the ASEAN
summit in Thailand next week.
Wen conveyed his wish during a meeting with Petroleum
Minister Murli Deora who was on a visit to China to attend a
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meet last week.
The Chinese leader`s remarks came after Beijing had
raked up its claim over Arunachal Pradesh questioning Singh`s
visit there on October 3 and India hit back on Chinese
involvement in projects in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
On the agenda of the bilateral meeting between Krishna
and Jiechi, sources said, "whenever there is a trilateral
meet, which provides a good opportunity for the political
exchanges, the bilateral meetings also takes place....The
entire gamut of the relationship is discussed during these
meetings."
The trilateral meet will focus on the issues of energy
security, climate change, counter-terrorism and trans-national
crime among other host of matters of common interest.
The RIC has a common agenda in which the three
emerging economies of the world outline their common goals and
objectives and try to forge synergies to meet those goals.
Another issue that has cropped up between India and
China in recent days is the misuse of visas by Chinese
nationals who entered on business visas and are now employed
in different projects across the country.
New Delhi recently gave time till October to these
Chinese nationals to convert their business visa to employment
visa.
Sources said there was no new visa regime and these
norms were being undertaken only to streamlines the process
and stop "misuse" of business visas.
They also said the External Affairs Ministry was in
touch with the Home Ministry on the issue to avoid delay in
projects taken up by various foreign professionals seeking
proper visa such as employment visa.
These steps have not been taken abruptly and there
have been counsellor-level talks with various countries on the
visa issue.
Bureau Report
