China puts off Jammu-Lanzhou varsity MoU signing

China has put off signing of a pact between one of its academic institutions and a varsity in Jammu & Kashmir, citing “incomplete procedure”. The Central University of Jammu (CUJ) and China’s Lanzhou University were proposed to ink a MoU for academic cooperation.

Ashok Aima, vice-chancellor of CUJ, is among the heads of academic institutions accompanying President Pranab Mukherjee on his visit to China.

Aima and Wang Cheng, president of Lanzhou University, were expected to sign the MoU in presence of the President at Peking University on Thursday.

“I came fully prepared to sign the MoU with Lanzhou University. He (Wang), however, said this morning that it would not be possible to sign the pact,” Aima told DH.

“He (Wang) said that he was yet to complete some procedural formalities,” Aima added. The CUJ suggested joint research with Lanzhou varsity in areas like Sino-India Geo-Economic Cooperation, Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism (focused on lexicon and terminology), Asian Regionalism and World Order, and Trans-Himalayan Trade and Connectivity.

China calls itself an “all-weather friend” of Pakistan and it maintains that Kashmir is “a disputed area”.

A few years ago, New Delhi strongly protested Beijing’s policy of issuing stapled visas to people from Jammu & Kashmir (J&K). The move was seen as Beijing’s rejection of New Delhi’s claim over the entire state. It is, however, not clear if the postponement is linked to China’s negation of India’s claim on J&K.

Wang told DH that he could not sign the MoU as the clearance from the Board of Governors was yet to be obtained.

10 MoUs signed
Meanwhile, Mukherjee on Thursday witnessed signing of 10 MoUs for cooperation between academic institutions of India and China.

The MoUs were signed by the heads of the respective institutions at the Peking University here. Mukherjee was joined by Education Minister of China, Yuan Guiren.

George Yong-Boon Yeo, chancellor of Nalanda University, and Lin Jianhua, president of Peking University, signed the MoU for academic cooperation between the two institutions.

The Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT), Nagpur, inked MoUs for cooperation with four Chinese institutions–Beijing Normal University, Hunan University, Southwest University for Nationalities and Jiangshu University.