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Chinese Foreign Minister comes to India; PM to visit China: |
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Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi came to India on Sept. 7 to inaugurate the Chinese Consulate in Kolkata.
Yang Jiechi is paying a three-day visit to India at the invitation of his counterpart Pranab Mukherjee. In New Delhi, he will hold delegation level talks with Mukherjee and will call on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Yang will then leave for Sri Lanka.
The inauguration of the Chinese Consulate-General is part of the several steps being taken by both countries to strengthen the economic and people-to-people ties. India and China signed a memorandum of understanding for the opening of the Consulates-General in Guangzhou and Kolkata, respectively, during the visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao in November 2006.
Mukherjee visited China in May and inaugurated the Indian Consulate-General in Guangzhou city in south China’s Guangdong Province.
Within a month of the Chinese Foreign Minister’s trip to India, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to visit China next month for a two-day summit(Oct. 24-25) of the ASEM-7 being organized by the Asia–Europe Meeting in Beijing. He will also hold talks with Chinese leaders besides leaders of several Asian and European countries there. The planned visits of both Dr. Singh and Yang signal an intensification of communication between the two nations. They also show that the two Governments are determined to sort out their differences concerning the border and other issues and work together at the international level.
Chinese visa to Arunachal MP
Meanwhile, a prompt issuance of visa by China to a Member of Parliament from Arunachal Pradesh and a strong critic of China, has surprised New Delhi. The BJP MP from Arunachal Pradesh, Kiren Rajju, was a member of the parliamentary team to go to China to watch the Olympic Games. On his return, he said he himself was surprised by the grant of visa without any hitch. Noting that this was the first time that China had issued visa to a Arunachalese diplomatic passport holder, Rajju said it is an indication of a “positive” change in Beijing’s attitude.
So far, as a matter of policy, China has been refusing visa to the Indians born in Arunachal Pradesh on the plea that Arunachal Pradesh was a Chinese territory occupied by India and the Chinese living there did not need visa to visit their own country. Some time back, an IAS officer from the State who was part of a team of IAS officers on a study mission to China was refused visa.
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