“Both China and India are developing countries and the development of good-neighbourly cooperation is in accordance with the fundamental interests of the two countries and the aspirations of the two peoples, and will benefit peace and development of the region and the world at large,” said Zhou Yongkang, a top leader of the Communist Party of China.
Zhou is a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee’s Political Bureau and secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Political and Legal Affairs.
He arrived in New Delhi on Sunday – just two days after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Hanoi.
“China and India have a history of friendship of more than 2000 years. The five principles of peaceful coexistence that China and India jointly advocated in the 1950s have not only become the basis of bilateral relations, but also a widely-accepted code of conduct in international relations which have made great contributions to safeguarding the world peace,” Zhou said.
He added that he had come to New Delhi to “boost mutual trust, deepen friendship, expand mutual understanding and promote cooperation” between the two countries.
The remarks of the highly-influential leader of the CPC came on a day the Chinese Premier visited the India Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo and admired its “beautiful” Buddhist style “architecture” based on the Sanchi Stupa, adding that it had left a “deep impression” on him. He is likely to call on Singh and External Affairs Minister S M Krishna.
Krishna and Zhou in fact will on Monday attend a seminar on “China and India: 60 Years and Beyond” organised by the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Congress.
The Congress and CPC have a Memorandum of Understanding for regular political exchanges.
Wang Jiarui and Ai-Ping, both top officials of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, will speak at the seminar, which will have sessions on the political basis of India-China relations, economic and cultural ties between the two countries and ways to strengthen mutual trust.
Zhou will also have a separate meeting with CPM general secretary Prakash Karat and politburo member Sitaram Yechury, CPI general secretary A B Bardhan and secretary D Raja, and Forward Bloc general secretary Debabrata Biswas and secretary G Devarajan on Monday.
