Warming up to Wen,Delhi says Beijing will unstaple visa issue

While India still waits for these words to translate into concrete action,the government has decided not to link Wens visit with the other contentious question of India attending the Nobel Prize ceremony on Friday. Official sources confirmed that India will attend the ceremony just the way it has done in the past and will do so in the future too.

We will go as we have in the past. We dont see this as a bilateral issue, said sources when asked about Chinas demarche to several countries,including India,to stay away from the ceremony at Oslo where the Nobel peace prize is to be given in absentia to Chinese dissident activist Liu Xiaobo. Unlike Aung San Suu Kyi or the Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov whose family members had received the award,Liu will have no representative.

As for the Chinese Premiers visit next week,sources said,China had requested for Wen to deliver a public address and the same was being arranged at the Indian Council of World Affairs. It may be noted that it is rare to find visiting Chinese leaders give public speeches.

The visit will provide the opportunity for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Chinese Premier to discuss a whole range of issues,including matters of concern,at the highest level. External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and then National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon have both strongly taken up the issue of China giving stapled visas to residents of Jammu & Kashmir.

They have conveyed to Chinese leaders last month that India expects China to be sensitive to its core concerns and that Jammu & Kashmir is as sensitive to India as Tibet is to China.

Though China has said it will find a solution,sources said,India did not expect any dramatic announcement reversing the policy during Wens visit. Rather,it would be a quiet change if it were to happen. India is,however,looking to have a serious conversation on the economic relationship where there is an unhealthy trade imbalance in Chinas favour. In fact,sources said,Wen has acknowledged this earlier and agreed with the importance of addressing this soon.

On the boundary question,sources said,progress has been steady but there is still a fair distance to travel. Both sides are negotiating elements of a framework agreement,which is the second phase in a three-phase process. The first was an agreement on guiding principles which was concluded in Wens earlier visit back in 2005. It may be recalled that the NSA just held a round of talks on the issue with Chinese State Councillor Dai Bingguo.

What official sources,however,sought to highlight was the tranquility along the border. Claiming that this was the most peaceful border,sources added that there have far lesser incidents of intrusions and face-offs this year. In fact,border meetings have been going on despite Indias decision to freeze defence exchanges.

On the whole,the government feels that while there are differences,the relationship is moving forward given the number of visits and exchanges at different levels and the fact that eight of the nine politburo members of the Chinese Community Party have visited India.

While India still has concerns over China selling nuclear reactors to Pakistan,government sources explained that it is not an issue India is too worried because,after all,these reactors would be under IAEA safeguards an explanation China has officially given to India. The more serious concern on the Indian side is Chinese assistance to Pakistans nuclear programme on the military side. Wen will be travelling to Pakistan from India.