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Chinese foreign minister in New Delhi

BARRISTER HARUN UR RASHID
CHINESE Foreign Minister Wang Yi's two-day visit to New Delhi from June 8 has been significant in many ways.
First, the visit was to assess each other' mindset. Second, the foreign minister visited New Delhi as Special Envoy of President Xi Jinping and called on President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Third, the visit came soon after the Chinese prime minister spoke to Indian Prime Minister Modi over phone on May 29, and reflects the importance China attaches to its relations with the new government of India.
Chinese officials, media and state-run think tanks reportedly projected a new vigour in trade and economic ties between the two countries. Modi had visited China four times as chief minister of Gujarat, with the 2011 trip quite extraordinary in that Beijing rolled out the red carpet for him, a gesture usually reserved for heads of state.
Chinese media has highlighted Modi's plans to visit Bhutan this month followed by Japan in July and the US in September. Modi is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping at the BRICS summit in Brazil next month. Earlier, it was reported that China has expressed keen interest about the presence of President Mukherjee for celebrations marking 60 years of Panchsheel, the five principles of peace proposed by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his Chinese counterpart Zhou Enlai in 1954. The function is proposed to be held in Beijing on June 28.
Yi, held talks with External Affairs Minister Ms. Sushma Swaraj and reportedly discussed the Chinese president's visit to India, and economic and border issues. The talks were described as "productive and substantive."
China has become India's biggest trading partner, with two-way trade jumping from $5 billion in 2002 to nearly $75 billion in 2011, although that figure declined to $61.5 billion in 2012 because of the global economic downturn. Trade remains heavily skewed in China's favour. Indian trade deficit is about $40 billion, which India wants to reduce by seeking great access to the Chinese market.
Relations between the two continue remain strained because of border issues. The Line of Actual Control between the neighbours has never been formally demarcated, although they have signed accords to maintain peace in the region that was the site of a brief Indo-Chinese war in 1962. Border talks have failed so far to produce a breakthrough despite 15 rounds of discussions over the past 10 years.
India says China is occupying 38,000
square kilometers of its territory in the Aksai Chin plateau in the western Himalayas, while China claims around 90,000 square kilometers in India's northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh.
Other sources of tension include China's weapons supply to Pakistan, the presence in India ofTibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and his selfdeclared Tibetan government-in-exile. Furthermore, India watches with concern the growing Chinese influence in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, India's traditional South Asian sphere of influence.
On border dispute, Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang during his visit to India in 2011 reportedly said that the dispute was a historical hangover and that there was a desire on both sides to resolve it. "We have established the principles for settling the question," Li said. He also stated: "I believe that there are far more shared interests between China and India than the differences we have. Without the common development of China and India, Asia won't become strong and the world won't become a better place."
The new Chinese leadership is keen to improve relations with India in the face of serious challenges over its maritime disputes with Japan in the East China Sea and with Vietnam, the Philippines and other maritime neighbours in the South China Sea amid a major US military push into the Asia-
Pacific.
The current visit is evidence of the strength of the economic ties between India and China. It has set the scene for China's consolidation of economic relationships with India, which may pave the way to settle border disputes in future between the two Asian giants.
Another fact is to note that Modi also has a warm equation with Japan and its PM Shinzo Abe. Both leaders are strong nationalists and reportedly share the same perspective on the future of the geopolitical and economic order of Asia. The development of India-Japan relations will have an impact on India-China relations because China has strained relations with Japan.
However, India and China, the most populous countries and also the largest emerging markets in the world, are expected to surpass the GDP of Japan by 2028 according to the report released in December 2013 by the Danish Centre for Economic and Business Research. If the two Asian giants take a bold initiative to craft a stronger cooperative strategy by settling the on-going political irritants, they would be able to emerge as a global power, the effects of which would reverberate across the world, transforming this century into "Asian century."
The writer is a former Bangladesh Ambassador to the UN, Geneva.