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Beijing deletes Sikkim irritant: The Pioneer
Bali, Oct 09: Gestures often speak louder than words. In the case of India and China they perhaps speak the loudest. A day ahead of a significant meeting between Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao here, the Chinese Foreign Ministry made a crucial amendment to its official website.
Bali, Oct 09: Gestures often speak louder than words. In the case of India and China they perhaps speak the loudest. A day ahead of a significant meeting between Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao here, the Chinese Foreign Ministry made a crucial amendment to its official website.
As indicated by the Chinese side prior to Wednesday's meeting, in the section on regional countries, Sikkim, which earlier featured alongside Singapore as an independent identity in the list, was deleted.
The deletion is being viewed as a major step forward in China's stated intent of removing long-standing irritants in its relations with India. Briefing the media on Mr Vajpayee's meeting with Mr Wen, Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal said the amended website was an indication that Beijing is delivering on its promise that whatever understanding had been reached during Mr Vajpayee's visit to China this June would be honoured.
Admittedly, Sikkim has been the easiest of bilateral irritants to resolve. Except, China had hitherto shown little will to address even this simplest of issues. The first step was taken during Mr Vajpayee's visit when the two sides agreed on Indo-China border trade at Changgu through the Nathu La pass in Sikkim. This was widely interpreted as China's implicit recognition of Sikkim's accession to India in 1975. The deletion of Sikkim as a separate country now takes this a step ahead.
New Delhi has been awaiting forward movement on real issues, instead of rhetoric, ever since Mr Vajpayee concluded a highly successful visit to China. The next concrete step in this direction of course is a meeting of the two Special Representatives, National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra and Chinese Senior Vice-Minister Dai Bingguo, in New Delhi on October 23 for the first round of talks on settling boundary issues.
In this regard, Mr Wen is understood to have told Mr Vajpayee that China was looking at a resolution of the boundary issue in the context of its long-term strategic relations with India. Clarifications on the Line of Actual Control and discussions on the prickly issue of the western sector during the Mishra-Dai talks would take place in this new atmosphere of political determination to resolve the issue, Mr Sibal said. Understandably, New Delhi is not looking at artificial deadlines on the border issue; it is satisfied with the new-found political will on either side to address the matter.
Mr Sibal said the Vajpayee-Wen meeting was marked by a remarkable cordiality with the two in complete agreement that a very good beginning had been made and that a political situation should be found to the border issues. Mr Wen lauded Mr Vajpayees great vision and his will and determination to upgrade the level of our relationship, the Foreign Secretary said.
Acknowledging the efforts by both countries to take the relationship forward, the two leaders agreed that, the decision to address the boundary issues would send a very important message to the world - that the two largest and most populous countries of the world were joining hands. The two leaders agreed that together they would make a very significant contribution to stability and development globally and contribute to the rejuvenation of Asia which would be a major event in world history.
Pointing out that India-China relations had been friendly for about 99 per cent of the time, barring a couple of years that needed to be put behind, Mr Wen expressed the confidence that remaining issues can be settled with a clear political determination on both sides to do so. He indicated his hope of visiting India as early as possible. He is also understood to have told Mr Vajpayee that for him this meeting was the most important here.
The striking cordiality of the meeting was evident in the fact that the recent border face-off in Arunachal Pradesh that immediately followed Mr Vajpayee's visit to China was not mentioned.
The deletion is being viewed as a major step forward in China's stated intent of removing long-standing irritants in its relations with India. Briefing the media on Mr Vajpayee's meeting with Mr Wen, Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal said the amended website was an indication that Beijing is delivering on its promise that whatever understanding had been reached during Mr Vajpayee's visit to China this June would be honoured.
Admittedly, Sikkim has been the easiest of bilateral irritants to resolve. Except, China had hitherto shown little will to address even this simplest of issues. The first step was taken during Mr Vajpayee's visit when the two sides agreed on Indo-China border trade at Changgu through the Nathu La pass in Sikkim. This was widely interpreted as China's implicit recognition of Sikkim's accession to India in 1975. The deletion of Sikkim as a separate country now takes this a step ahead.
New Delhi has been awaiting forward movement on real issues, instead of rhetoric, ever since Mr Vajpayee concluded a highly successful visit to China. The next concrete step in this direction of course is a meeting of the two Special Representatives, National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra and Chinese Senior Vice-Minister Dai Bingguo, in New Delhi on October 23 for the first round of talks on settling boundary issues.
In this regard, Mr Wen is understood to have told Mr Vajpayee that China was looking at a resolution of the boundary issue in the context of its long-term strategic relations with India. Clarifications on the Line of Actual Control and discussions on the prickly issue of the western sector during the Mishra-Dai talks would take place in this new atmosphere of political determination to resolve the issue, Mr Sibal said. Understandably, New Delhi is not looking at artificial deadlines on the border issue; it is satisfied with the new-found political will on either side to address the matter.
Mr Sibal said the Vajpayee-Wen meeting was marked by a remarkable cordiality with the two in complete agreement that a very good beginning had been made and that a political situation should be found to the border issues. Mr Wen lauded Mr Vajpayees great vision and his will and determination to upgrade the level of our relationship, the Foreign Secretary said.
Acknowledging the efforts by both countries to take the relationship forward, the two leaders agreed that, the decision to address the boundary issues would send a very important message to the world - that the two largest and most populous countries of the world were joining hands. The two leaders agreed that together they would make a very significant contribution to stability and development globally and contribute to the rejuvenation of Asia which would be a major event in world history.
Pointing out that India-China relations had been friendly for about 99 per cent of the time, barring a couple of years that needed to be put behind, Mr Wen expressed the confidence that remaining issues can be settled with a clear political determination on both sides to do so. He indicated his hope of visiting India as early as possible. He is also understood to have told Mr Vajpayee that for him this meeting was the most important here.
The striking cordiality of the meeting was evident in the fact that the recent border face-off in Arunachal Pradesh that immediately followed Mr Vajpayee's visit to China was not mentioned.