China looking to build ties with neighbours after transition, Dai tells Menon

Bellevision Network
PTI

 

Beijing/China: 02 December 2012: Chinese State Councillor Dai Bingguo told National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon here on Monday that China was looking to forge stronger ties with its neighbours following the leadership transition.

Mr. Dai, who is also Mr. Menon’s counterpart as the Special Representative (SR) on the boundary talks, said Monday’s visit had assumed “special and important” significance as it was one of the first visits by a foreign leader to China following November’s Party Congress, which formalised a once-in-a-decade leadership transition.

“You’re one of the first few foreign leaders we are receiving after the party congress,” Mr. Dai told Mr. Menon at their first session of talks. “I’m sure through your visit the Indian side will have a better sense of China after the eighteenth Party Congress and China’s foreign policy, and how best to join forces to further promote the development of China-India relations”.

The first session of Monday’s talks was devoted to briefing Mr. Menon on China’s transition. Two other sessions later on Monday will focus on Sino-Indian relations and are expected to cover a range of topics from the boundary question to wider strategic issues.

Mr. Menon is expected to meet Wu Bangguo, the head of the National People’s Congress or Parliament and the second-ranked member of the outgoing Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC) which stepped down last month, at the Great Hall of the People on Tuesday morning. Officials said earlier he was also expected to meet with one of the seven members of the newly-selected PBSC.

Mr. Dai began Monday’s meeting by describing India as “a big and friendly neighbour of China”. “I would like to emphasise here,” he told Mr. Menon, “that it was made very clear at the eighteenth party congress that China would continue to be committed to path of peaceful development and work for the noble cause of peace and development for all mankind.”

“It was also solemnly declared at the party congress that China will continue to make friends with and forge partnerships with our neighbours,” he said. “We will consolidate our good relations with our neighbours and expand mutually beneficial cooperation. We will do our best to make sure that China’s development will bring more benefits to our surrounding countries and will always be a friend to other members of the developing world.”

Mr. Menon said Monday’s meeting came “at a time of significant developments, in China, with the party congress, and in the world as well”. “It also a time when India China relations are proceeding smoothly and developing well,” he said, describing the relationship as “one of our most important relationships”.

“The development of this relationship is important not just to us in India and China, but to also the region and the rest of the world and it is of growing significance,” he added.

Mr. Menon said Mr. Dai “had made major contributions to India China relations” for many years. The Chinese State Councillor – a rank below Vice Premier in the State Council, or Cabinet – will step down as the Special Representative when he retires at the Parliament Session in March. He was accompanied at Monday’s talks by Vice Foreign Minister Fu Ying. A member of the newly selected Central Committee, she has been seen as one of the candidates to take over his role as the SR in the boundary talks.

Both sides will review the progress after 15 rounds of talks, although the perception in both New Delhi and Beijing is that little progress has been made since the signing of an agreement on political parameters and guiding principles in 2005. Talks are currently in the second of three stages, which involves the complicated task of arriving at a framework to settle the boundary question in all sectors. The final stage will see the delineating of the border in maps and on the ground.