Rabi Sankar Bosu
June 3, 2016
President Pranab Mukherjee, a veteran of the Indian political system, made his first visit to China as the Head of State from May 24 to 27,2016 at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping but had made a number of trips to China in various capacities during his long political career. The last Presidential visit to China was by Mrs. Pratibha Patil in 2010. Mr. Mukherjee has been closely associated with the development of India-China relations for over three decades of his political life. His visit as well as discussions with top Chinese leaders was fruitful and productive in respect of bilateral relations between India and China. During his visit he met China’s top leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Vice President Li Yuanchao , Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Chairman of the National People’s Congress Zhang Dejiang and held discussions on key bilateral, regional and global issues like economic ties between the two countries, the complex border issues, cooperation for combating designs of terror groups and India’s membership of the elite Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).
In addition to the economic cooperation and cultural exchanges between India and China, high-level exchanges are getting closer in recent years. The President’s visit, which is a reciprocal visit to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s trip to India in 2014, will be followed by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Chinese city of Hangzhou to take part in the G20 leaders summit to be held on September 4 and 5 this year. President Xi is expected to travel to India to take part in the Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) Summit scheduled to be held in Goa from October 15-16 this year. Prime Minister Modi had made a high-profile visit to China last year. The G-20 Summit and the BRICS Summit will provide an opportunity to continue bilateral dialogue and will help increase exchanges between people of the two countries.
As part of his trip in China, President Pranab Mukherjee arrived in the highly industrialized Chinese city Guangzhou, capital city of south China’s Guangdong Province on May 24. He was received by China’s Foreign Affairs Vice Minister Liu Zhenmin. The city has strong business links with India. There are around 3-thousand Indian nationals living in Guangzhou. The large Indian community serves as an important bridge between India and China. Bilateral trade between Guangzhou and India hit 20-billion renminbi last year. During his stay in Guangzhou, President Mukherjee had a meeting with Mr. Hu Chunhua, Secretary of the provincial committee of the Chinese Communist Party of Guangdong, Mr. Zhu Xiaodan, Governor of the Guangdong province and Mr. Jiang Zengwei, Chairman of China Council for Promotion of International Trade. The Chinese leaders conveyed their strong interest in promoting business and people to people ties with India, especially the State of Gujarat with which they have a sister-province relationship. They enquired about various development initiatives launched by India and conveyed willingness to play a leadership role in enhancing trade and investment ties. Besides interacting with the Indian community, the Indian President addressed the India-China Business Forum in which a large number of Indian and Chinese business representatives participated. In his address, President Mukherjee invited Chinese entrepreneurs to participate in the ‘Make in India’ initiative and said India was committed to providing “conducive atmosphere” for investment from China. The President said he was happy to note that a good start has been made by Chinese businesses who are investing in infrastructure projects and industrial parks in India.
Delivering a lecture titled “India – China Relations: 8 Steps to a Partnership of the People” at the prestigious Peking University in Beijing on May 26, 2016, President Mukherjee outlined eight pillars for the future of Sino-India ties and underlined the need for resolving challenges like the boundary question through “political acumen” and “civilisational wisdom” so that the coming generations are not “burdened” by unresolved issues. “In the last seven decades, our bilateral relations have been tested by difficulties and challenges; but the determination of the Indian people to safeguard their friendship with the people of China has visibly endured,” he said. Mukherjee noted that there is bipartisan commitment to strengthening partnership with China, and said political understanding between the two countries is vital for “closer developmental partnership”. He said he was “confident that by placing these eight pillars at the foundation of a people-centric approach, we can sufficiently enhance and strengthen our cooperation to the mutual benefit of both our peoples”. He suggested eight areas in which India and China could collaborate to grow their ties. They include youth exchange, the arts, tourism, global development and trade. Echoing the sentiments offered by the Indian leader, President of Peking University Lin Jianhua said the university has put great emphasis in enhancing students’ understanding of Indian culture. President Mukherjee witnessed the signing of 10 MoUs for cooperation between the institutions of India and China, where he made a special emphasis on India’s renewed thrust on research and innovation.
After receiving a grand welcome in a ceremony held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, President Pranab Mukherjee held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on 26 May, including topics such as economy, terrorism, education and people to people contact. Hailing the development of the bilateral ties in recent years, President Xi Jinping said the two sides should stick to the theme of neighborly friendship and reciprocal cooperation to cement the China-India relationship and benefit the people of the two countries. “We are willing to work with the Indian side to carry forward the tradition of mutual learning of civilization between the two nations, enhance the bilateral comprehensive cooperation, so as to push the China-Indian strategic partnership to a new level, promote the common development between both sides, and make greater contributions to regional and world peace and prosperity,” President Xi said. For his part, Mukherjee said the bilateral cooperation between the two sides can benefit the people of the two countries and the whole of humanity. “India and China are two large growing economies and major powers on the world stage. We represent over 40 percent of humanity. Our relations transcend the bilateral meetings and have strategic significance. If we come together, we can generate tremendous momentum for peace, prosperity and development,” President Mukherjee said.
Terrorism was another important topic which President Mukherjee conveyed to Chinese leaders that there is universal concern over growing acts of terrorism. President Pranab Mukherjee told China’s President Xi Jinping on 26 May that there was “no such thing as good terrorists and bad terrorists” and both sides needed to take each other’s sensitivities and interests into account if they were to expand counter-terror cooperation. What was conveyed by the President was this was really a global fight and both India and China have been affected by terrorism. The president also conveyed to China that India required “a predictable international environment” to be able to expand its civilian nuclear programme. The president asked President Xi to give his “personal attention” to India’s efforts to boost its civil nuclear programme. President Xi and Premier Li spoke of the increasing uncertainties at the global level and said it was important for India and China to increase their level of cooperation with each other bilaterally and at international fora. On 26 May Mukherjee also met with China’s Premier Li Keqiang and top legislator Zhang Dejiang. During his meeting with Mukherjee, Premier Li said the two countries’ development constituted opportunities for each other.
Meetings with the Chinese leadership, President Pranab Mukherjee on 27 May called on India and China to jointly impart “momentum” to bilateral ties as he described relations between the two countries as the “defining partnership of the 21st century.”At the conclusion of his four-day visit to China, Mukherjee said that his interactions with top Chinese leaders including President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang were “fruitful and productive” and added that the Chinese side appreciated India’s attempts to propel ties onto a higher plane. President Mukherjee returned to India with the conviction that “we must jointly impart new momentum to this defining partnership of the 21st century.”
As a common man of India, I think the top leaders of our two countries should forge lasting friendship and be sincere friends.There is no doubt that we, ordinary Indians, want to see India-China relationship will be sweeter than honey so that 2 billion 60 million people of two sides of the Himalayas work together and our friendship will be handed down from generation to generation. Long live india-China friendship.
