Beijing’s reported willingness to review its two-year old policy of issuing stapled visas to residents of Jammu & Kashmir appears to indicate that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has successfully conveyed his message to the Chinese leadership that China has to be sensitive to India’s ‘core issues’. It doesn’t reflect a change in China’s policy on Kashmir though, and the policy remains blatantly partisan -Pakistan centric.
From a purely Indian point view, the stapled visa regime is not a big deal and this is the reason for no diplomatic tit for tat action. Also, it doesn’t affect the people from Jammu and Kashmir; not many of them visit China, and the few, who want to go to Beijing, are mostly academics.
Obviously, Prime Minister Singh was referring to this ground reality when he told his Chinese counterpart that there was no need for new irritants in the bilateral relations, which after several decades, are on an upswing. In the absence of a readout on the meeting from Beijing, it is difficult to gauge Wen’s response. In recent weeks his turf space is under attack from conservatives at home.
Singh and Wen meet in Hanoi on the sidelines of the Asean summit; it was the first top level contact since the high-level defence exchanges were suspended in July following the row over stapled visas issue.
As the two leaders noted, there is enough space for both the countries to grow in today’s world, where strategic interests are often subordinated to economic diplomacy.
Singh-Jiabao talks covered economic aspects of the bilateral relationship and projected trade target of USD 60 billion.
China is poised to overtake the US as the world’s largest economy in 25 years. India’s GDP is forecast at 7.6 per cent in 2010, another 8 per cent in 2011- not far behind 9 per cent forecast for China.
The Chinese premier is expected to visit India on December 16, nearly a month after the American President swings through Mumbai and Delhi.
A key member of the Chinese Communist Party politburo, Zhou Yongkang, is in India these days to prepare the ground Jiabao’s visit. He wants removal of all "irritants in ties", and during an interaction with Indian Minister for External Affairs, SM Krishna, egged him to “jump the wall”. Krishna’s replied: I already climbed the "great wall".
The reference was to his climbing of the wall during a visit to China two years ago.
