India, China and Russia agree to enhance cooperation

Sandeep Dikshit

China did not raise the issue of Dalai Lama visiting Arunachal Pradesh next month but complained about India's move to cancel business visas and convert them to employment visas during a 90-minute meeting between Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi here on Tuesday.

External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi (right) and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov prior to the trilateral meeting in Bangalore on Tuesday. Photo: Bhagya Prakash K

On the complaint about the cancellation of business visas that has affected many of its workers, India explained that it was a uniform policy being applied to all foreign nationals. "There was no change in the visa regime. Only the misuse of the business visa was stopped. Visas henceforth would be uniform employment visas," Mr. Yang was told by his Indian interlocutors.

China condemned the Mumbai attacks and the repeat bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul after India gave a detailed briefing and "exposed" the masterminds, said highly placed sources. China also said such killing of innocent civilians "also affected them."

Both sides also dwelt on trade issues and explored ideas to step up its volume in a manner that addressed Indian concerns about the massive imbalance.

To improve communication

India and China also resolved to step up communication to avoid differences that had recently cropped up over disputed areas and the proposed visit of Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama to Arunachal Pradesh. No official word was available about the meeting between Mr. Krishna and Mr. Yang barring a brief statement read out by the former. The reason why the meeting took up so much of time was because Mr. Yang's observations in Chinese had to be translated into English.

The two leaders decided to step up dialogue to build trust at several levels including more frequent high-level exchanges, media, cultural and people-to-people interaction and even more defence exchanges.

Mr. Krishna described the meeting as "warm" and the exchange of views on "all aspects" of bilateral relations "fruitful."

The Foreign Ministers welcomed the positive outcome of the meeting between the two Prime Ministers last weekend and discussed measures to improve relations including celebrating the 60th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries in a "befitting manner." Mr. Krishna accepted Mr. Yang's invitation to visit China next year and the date will be worked out.

"I am satisfied with my talks with the Chinese Foreign Minister. We both see this as part of the process to build trust and understanding at the political level," he said.