PM to visit Japan, China from tomorrow

Tuesday, October 21, 2008 at 2:10 am

India’s engagements with Asia and Europe are expected to get further boost when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh travels on a bilateral visit to Japan on Tuesday (October 21) and to China to attend the ASEM Summit for the first time. Singh will head to Tokyo on Tuesday where he will hold talks with the country’s new Prime Minister Taro Aso on political, security and economic ties, including a free trade agreement, aiming to expand bilateral strategic relations.

“India-Japan relations are very important and we attach high priority to it,” Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon told reporters on the eve of Singh’s visit to Tokyo, his second since last year. “Last year, we had laid out a roadmap for the strategic and global partnership and we look forward to carrying on through discussions,” Menon said.

Describing Aso as “an old friend of India,” he said that India-Japan relations have improved considerably with frequent high-level visits and intense discussions, including between the militaries of the two nations. Aso, who was Japan’s foreign minister till last month before being elected as prime minister, is keen to forge strategic ties with India.

Singh will call on Japanese Emperor Akihito during his three-day visit. Several high-ranking Japanese ministers as well as Opposition leaders are expected to call on Singh. Menon noted that India and Japan are negotiating an economic partnership agreement and it is hoped that the two sides would make progress on the pact.

He noted that India has emerged as the largest recipient of Japanese ODA loans, getting 30 per cent of the aid provided by the country. The two governments are also discussing the development of Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor and about developing a ‘green field’ Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Menon said. “We hope Prime Minister’s visit to Japan will give our ties further fillip,” he said.

Senior trade industry leaders from both sides will also meet in Tokyo to chart out future plans to boost bilateral trade. The Indian delegation will be led by Reliance chief Mukesh Ambani. Bilateral trade in 2007-08 stood at $9.89 billion, an increase of 37 per cent over previous year. Indian exports were to the tune of $3.5 billion.

In the second leg of his five-day visit, Singh will travel to China for the seventh Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) to be held in Beijing on October 24-25. Singh’s attendance at the Beijing Summit would be the highest level of participation from India at the ASEM. The 27-nation grouping, in which India was admitted in 2006, will deliberate on political, economic, social and cultural issues, including matters related to sustainable development.

Singh is also expected to meet with several foreign leaders on the sidelines of the ASEM Summit, which includes 27 member nations of the European Union, 10 members of the Association of Southeast Nations, three northeast Asian nations– China, South Korea and Japan.

While no details of these meetings were provided, senior officials said that Singh is expected to meet with leaders from China. Asked if a meeting has been scheduled with Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Secretary, East of the Ministry of External Affairs, N Ravi said that a number of requests for bilateral meetings have been received and a final decision on them has not been taken so far.

Ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to China, India on Tuesday said that both sides have made “considerable progress” in finding a solution to the “complex” boundary issue. “We are satisfied with the progress achieved. We are making progress,” Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon told reporters on the eve of Singh’s two-nation visit to Japan and China.

While Singh’s visit to Beijing this time is to attend the 7th ASEM Summit from Oct 24-25, Menon indicated that the prime minister is expected to meet with the Chinese leadership on the sidelines of the meeting.

Singh met his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao in New York on September 24 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session. During that session, the two leaders had stressed the need to find a mutually acceptable solution to the border issue at an early date.

Menon noted that the two Special Representatives of India and China, National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and Chinese State Councillor Dai Bingguo have held 12 rounds of negotiations so far.

Unable to find a negotiated settlement through diplomatic channels, India and China appointed Special Representatives in June 2003 to address the border issue from a political perspective of the overall bilateral relations. He said the two sides have already reached agreement in 2005 on the guiding principles and political parameters for resolving the boundary issue.

“We are making steady progress,” Menon said while going on to describe the boundary question as a “complex issue. We are not disappointed at all (at the slow progress of talks),” he said adding that the two sides will now have to translate the progress achieved so far into ground. The unresolved Sino-Indian boundary has issue has hampered the normal development of bilateral ties, with frequent reports of incursions, hurting the overall relations.

India says China is illegally occupying 43,180 sq kms of Jammu and Kashmir including 5,180 sq km illegally ceded to Beijing by Islamabad under the Sino-Pakistan boundary agreement in 1963. On the other hand, China accuses India of possessing some 90,000 sq km of Chinese territory, mostly in Arunachal Pradesh.

(With inputs from agencies)

( This post is from an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not endorsed by APakistanNews.Com.)

PM to visit Japan, China from tomorrow

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