Ties with India fragile: Beijing

New Delhi hopes for change in stand on Indias Security Council bid

Even as New Delhi hopes that Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to India this week will iron out differences in the complex bilateral relation, Zhang warned that the Sino-Indian ties “are very fragile.”

Zhang, while subtly prodding New Delhi to tone down anti-China rhetoric in media and public discourse in India, said the government should “provide guidance to the public to avoid a war of words.”

Zhang was speaking at a conference organised by the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries. His remarks have come just two days before Wen’s arrival for his second visit to India. New Delhi hopes that Beijing will not only address some of its concerns—like the Chinese policy of issuing stapled visas to Jammu and Kashmir citizens and limited access for India Inc in the neighbouring country’s market—during Wen’s visit, but would also spell out a more nuanced position on India’s bid for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

Wen is visiting New Delhi at the end of a year that has seen UK Prime Minister David Cameroon, US President Barack Obama and French President Nicholas Sarkozy all coming to India and openly supporting its bid for a permanent seat in the UNSC. India also won elections for a non-permanent seat in the UNSC for 2011-13 last October.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, too, is expected to articulate Moscow’s support for India’s UNSC aspirations while visiting New Delhi later this month. China has so far been maintaining that it understands India’s desire to play a greater role in the United Nations, but stopped short of supporting New Delhi’s bid for a permanent Security Council seat. New Delhi, however, hopes that China will subtly change its position and it may be reflected in the joint communiqué to be issued after Wen’s meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday.

China—like the US, UK, France and Russia—is a permanent member of the UNSC and its support is of vital importance for India.  Zhang, however, remained non-committal on the issue of Beijing reviewing its policy of giving “stapled visa” to Indian citizens of Jammu and Kashmir for travelling to China.

Replying to journalists’ queries on the sidelines of the conference, the Chinese envoy just said the issue of stapled visa was being discussed by Beijing and New Delhi. “It is being discussed, we are aware of the issue,” he added.

Chinese policy of issuing visas stapled on passport to J&K citizens has emerged as a major irritant in Sino-Indian relation over the past one year with New Delhi seeing it as Beijing’s way of negating its claim on troubled state as an integral part of India.
Gautam Bambawale, Joint Secretary (East Asia) in the Ministry of External Affairs, said India would take up the issue of stapled visa with China during Wen’s visit as it had been doing over the past several months. “We hope that the Chinese side will address our concern,” he said. Significantly, the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi recently issued regular visas—stamped on passport pages—to at least three people from J&K.

What New Delhi apparently feels unhappy about is Wen’s decision to travel to Pakistan after his visit to India, going against the trend Obama and other world leaders set of late by not putting the two South Asian neighbours together in their itinerary. India may also take up the issue of Chinese companies’ role in infrastructure projects in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir and express its concern over Sino-Pak nuclear cooperation during Wen’s visit.