Vice President Hamid Ansari will be visiting China from the 26th to the 30th of this month. The visit is at the invitation of his counterpart Vice-President Li Yuanchao. This is also his first visit to China. The last visit of a Vice-President of India to China took place in 1994 by the then Vice-President K.R. Narayanan, who had a stint in Beijing as Indian envoy.
Vice-President, as is usual, will be accompanied by a high-level delegation.
The Minister for Commerce and Industry, Nirmala Sitharaman, will be the Minister with the Vice President. Along with her will be four Members of Parliament. They are Hukmdeo Narayan Yadav, Member of Lok Sabha from Bihar; Bhalchandra Mungekar, Member of Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra; K.C. Tyagi, Member of Rajya Sabha from Bihar; and P. Rajeev, Member of Rajya Sabha from Kerala. Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh will be in the delegation along with Swashpawan Singh, Secretary to the Vice-President, as well as Gautam Bambawale, who is the MEA points-person for all matters relating to China along with other countries in East Asia.
In China the Vice-President will first be visiting Xian, which is part of the Shanxi province; it was here in Xian that the Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang who had visited India, had transcribed Buddhist texts into Chinese. These are very precious texts which still exist in Chinese.
In Beijing the Vice-President’s visit will have two components. There is a bilateral component wherein Ansari will be ceremonially received by his counterpart with a Guard of Honour. He will have delegation-level talks with his Chinese counterpart Vice-President Li. During this discussion, both sides are expected to discuss all matters of bilateral interest.
Vice-President is also expected to meet Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang and also call on President Xi Jinping in the Great Hall of the People.
Vice-President Ansari will also participate in a trilateral summit with China, and the Myanmar. This summit is to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Panchsheel which was originally enunciated in a trade agreement between India and the Tibet region of China in April 1954. Also, it was issued as part of a joint statement on 28th June 1954 during the visit of Prime Minister Zhou Enlai to India. Similarly on 29th June it was adopted as part of the China-Myanmar joint statement in Yangon, and hence the 60th anniversary of these two events is being celebrated in China.
EXCERPTS from Gautam Bambawale, Joint Secretary (East Asia) in MEA briefing
India and China maintain regular contacts at high level. This is part of strategic communication with each other. And Vice-President’s visit is part of this sequence of visits and regular exchanges of visits between our leaderships. It is expected that it will add new content and substance to our bilateral relations with specific outcomes.
Question: What is the position of China’s Vice-President in the hierarchy? Does he have powers? Is he ceremonial?
Joint Secretary (East Asia): As far as the Vice-President of China is concerned, it is a Constitutional position. He is one of the top leaders of that country. I think there is a lot of similarity between the Vice-President of India and the Vice-President of China.
Question: Is India also planning similar celebrations in our own country?
Joint Secretary (East Asia): We have had some events here in India. For example, recently there was a reception where the Ambassador of Myanmar, the Ambassador of China to India, and the Foreign Secretary were together on one platform to mark this 60th anniversary of the five principles of Panchsheel. Some events have been held here, and there are likely to be some more events in the coming months.
Question: Sir, as you yourself have said, other than the five principles of peaceful coexistence there had been trade agreements between India and China especially through Tibet. Do you think that this trade agreement is being implemented and is there any need of moderation in the original Panchsheel agreement?
Joint Secretary (East Asia): The Government of India thinks that the principles of Panchsheel are valid and are important even in today’s world. If you look at those five principles, you will see that they are very general principles which we believe should govern state-to-state relations, country-to-country relations even today. So, all the three countries, which are China, India and Myanmar, feel that this is relevant even today and that is why we are jointly celebrating the 60th anniversary of the first enunciation of these principles in 1954.
Question: After this visit, what will be the next highest level visit between the two countries?
Official Spokesperson (Syed Akbaruddin): You are aware that Prime Minister is travelling to Brazil for the BRICS Summit. It is our expectation that the leaders of the two countries will be meeting there. Also, you are aware that we have invited the President of China to visit India. This will happen later during the year. (As) I had mentioned to you after the meeting between External Affairs Minister and Special Envoy of the Chinese President Mr. Wang Yi when he came here, we expect five to six high-level interactions during the course of this year. This is the first of those interactions after the new government has settled in India.
-Poreg Desk
