Press Briefing by Foreign Secretary Shri Shivshankar Menon on Visit of the Chinese President Mr. Hu Jintao

21/11/2006

FOREIGN SECRETARY (SHRI SHIVSHANKAR MENON): What I thought I would do, ladies and gentlemen, was just to run over what the President of China did today and try to give you a feel for the quality of the conversations that took place today.

As you know, he arrived yesterday evening, was received at the airport by External Affairs Minister, and Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Resources. Today morning he had a ceremonial welcome at Rashtrapati Bhavan, and then visited Rajghat to pay his respects at the Samadhi of Gandhiji.

The External Affairs Minister called on him in the morning. He then came to Hyderabad House where there was a restricted meeting between the Prime Minister and President Hu Jintao for about forty minutes with a small group. This was followed by delegation-level talks. The exchange of views between the Prime Minister and President Hu Jintao continued over lunch.

The atmosphere throughout was friendly, cordial, and there is a good rapport between the two. This is the fifth time that they are meeting in the last year and a half or so. They used this opportunity, in all these conversations, to review developments in bilateral relations in a comprehensive way. They exchanged views on regional and multilateral issues.

To characterize the discussions, I think they were positive, they were open, and they were constructive. You already have the text of the remarks that Prime Minister and President Hu made at the signing ceremony and the press interaction after that.

This afternoon the Vice-President, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, and Chairman of the UPA will be calling on the Chinese President. Rashtrapatiji and President Hu Jintao will attend the India-China Friendship Year commemorative function this evening in Rashtrapati Bhavan where they will also meet the youth delegations of India and China consisting of 100 youths from each country.

Thereafter, President Hu will call on Rashtrapatiji who will also host a banquet in his honour in Rashtrapati Bhavan this evening. Tomorrow morning the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha will be calling on him and so will some of the political parties – the CPI(M), CPI. He will deliver an address in Vigyan Bhavan at a function hosted by the Indian Council of World Affairs before leaving for Agra and then for Mumbai.

In terms of outcome, we are very satisfied with the way the visit has worked out, with the quality of the conversations, and with the specific outcomes. As you know, we have a Strategic and Cooperative Partnership for peace and development with China which was announced last year during Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to India.

The desired attempt through these conversations is to bring the relationship to a new level, to add that to the strategic partnership, and to see how we can take this relationship forward. In all these respects, we are very satisfied with what has been achieved today so far.

This, as you know, is the first visit by a Chinese President to India in ten years. The last visit was in 1996 by President Jiang Zemin, and it comes at a time when our relationship is already a mature relationship.

In terms of major outcomes, you have the Joint Declaration with you already and you have a synopsis of the thirteen agreements which were signed. You will notice that the Joint Declaration contains the ten-point strategy for the development of this strategic and cooperative partnership between the two countries and provides a template for its all-round development.

To give you the highlights, the leaders of India and China have agreed to hold regular summit-level meetings and to intensify high-level exchanges. We have also strengthened the institutional linkages and inter-ministerial dialogue mechanisms. The protocol on cooperation between the foreign offices, for instance, institutionalizes this dialogue and the consultation mechanisms between them. It also provides for a hotline between the Foreign Ministers of the two countries. Additional Consulates General will be opened in Kolkata and in Guangzhou. We are also very happy that the long-pending issue of the property of the Indian Consulate in China has been settled finally.

As you would have noticed from the document, there is a comprehensive economic and commercial engagement between India and China. Trade, as you know, has grown considerably in the last two years and is likely to cross twenty billion dollars this year.

The two leaders set a target of forty billion dollars of direct bilateral trade by 2010. In their presence the Bilateral Investment Protection and Promotion agreement was signed which is one important component of the relationship. In addition, the Joint Task Force which is presently discussing regional trading arrangements was asked to complete its work by October 2007 and it will give us its report on the kind of trading arrangements that will be viable and feasible, and which will help both economies.

In addition there was an agreement between the leaders on enhancing the trans-border connectivity. As you know, we opened Nathu La to border trade for the first time this year and we are going to be exploring additional routes both for the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra and for border trade. There is agreement on a car rally between Kunming and Kolkata.

We are also working on arrangements for trans-border movement of motor vehicles which we hope will help trade and passenger traffic for which we have already made some temporary arrangements at Nathu La this year.

In this field of cooperative endeavour we have also agreed to set up an expert-level dialogue mechanism to discuss interaction in cooperation on issues regarding trans-border rivers. This is an issue of considerable significance for both of us. It is an issue which impacts on development, and the development of our economies and societies in both countries.

We are already receiving very valuable hydrological data from China in respect of two rivers – the Brahmaputra and the Sutlej and we have agreed to finalise at an early date similar arrangements for the Parlung Zangpo and the Lohit. It has also been decided to establish an India-China partnership in science and technology and four sectors have been identified for this, to start with, which will focus on nanotechnology including advanced materials, biotechnology, earthquake engineering, climate change, and weather forecasting.

We have also, and you would have seen this in the Joint Declaration, agreed to step up cooperation in the field of civilian nuclear energy both bilaterally and through multilateral projects like ITER. I draw your attention to paragraph 27 of the Joint Declaration.

We have also agreed that the international civilian nuclear cooperation should be advanced through innovative and forward-looking approaches. The other dimension that the two leaders looked at was increasing people-to-people exchanges and especially youth exchanges. The Government of China has invited 5000 youths from India over the next five years. We see this aspect of our relationship as really an investment in the future.

There are several other events at the people-to-people level including the organisation of Festival of India in China and a Festival of China in India. The year 2007 will be celebrated as “India-China Friendship Through Tourism” Year. You would have seen what has been done to make visas easier. We hope to do more work on that. We are also cooperating on making Nalanda a major centre of learning. We think these are important because these provide a solid base for the functional exchanges, for the other cooperation.

The two leaders also had a very useful exchange of views on the boundary question. They expressed appreciation for the progress and the effort and the work that these special representatives have put in, particularly for the achievement of signing the Agreement on Political Parameters and Guiding Principles for Boundary Settlement last year, and they asked them to hasten their work and to see that we can arrive at a boundary settlement. Earlier, they set this as a strategic goal for the relationship.

The most interesting part for me at least in these discussions was the very strong affirmation that India-China relations are no longer just a bilateral relationship but now have both a regional and global significance. This is something that you would have heard, President Hu also mentioned in the interaction.

Both sides are determined to ensure that India and China as good neighbours work together in their bilateral pursuits, that the rise of India and the rise of China in a sense are mutually reinforcing. We see this as helping us to develop our own societies. Good relations between the two countries contribute not only to our own development and to peace and prosperity in the region but we feel also for the rest of the world.

To sum up, I think we are very satisfied with the outcome of the discussions and with the understandings and with the agreements reached. I would be very happy to take any questions that you might have.

Thank you.