Vajpayee arrives in China in bid to bolster relations

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee arrived in China yesterday for the first visit by an Indian leader in a decade, with both sides looking to nurture closer ties after years of often frosty relations.

Enhancing trade links and rebuilding trust will top the agenda of the six-day visit which will take Vajpayee to Beijing, the ancient capital of Luoyang and the commercial hub of Shanghai.

"China would like to have a long-term, stable, sound and good-neighborly relationship with India," a senior Chinese foreign ministry official said. "That is consistent with China's policy of maintaining friendship and partnership with its neighbors."

But it may not all be plain sailing and some bridges need to be built, with a long-standing border spat between the two Asian giants likely to be on the agenda.

The world's two most populous countries, both nuclear powers, have had a series of territorial disputes.

They fought a brief but bloody border war in 1962 and briefly clashed again in 1986 in the Sumdorong Chu valley of the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.

India accuses China of occupying 38,000km2 of territory in Kashmir while Beijing lays claim to 90,000km2 of land in Arunachal Pradesh.

China, however, is keen to play down their differences and focus on improving relations.

"The border dispute is a burden left over from history and the colonial era," the foreign ministry official said. "We think this issue shouldn't be an obstacle to the development of bilateral relations. The two sides have confirmed that none will pose a threat to the other, and that will form a basis for the development of bilateral relations."

Nevertheless, with a decade having passed since an Indian leader set foot on Chinese soil -- it was then prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao in 1993 -- and with India conducting nuclear tests in 1998 that angered Beijing, there is still much distrust between the neighbors.

Just last month, the Indian defense ministry in its annual report highlighted that every important Indian city is within range of Chinese missiles.

The Chinese foreign ministry official said Beijing wanted to step up military exchanges with India as a way of building trust.

"China would like to step up cooperation and exchanges in the military field with the Indian side. That is conducive to enhancing mutual understanding and trust," he said.

Booming trade ties will feature high on the agenda.

In recent years bilateral trade has blossomed, growing at more than 30 percent annually to US$5 billion last year from US$300 million in the early 1990s, and officials on both sides are keen to maintain the momentum.

Indian industry is planning to use Vajpayee's trip to lift bilateral trade. About 70 Indian companies currently have business links with China.

Two leading industry bodies -- the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) -- are sending large delegations with the prime minister.

Vajpayee will meet with President Hu Jintao, but it remains unclear if he will also hold talks with Hu's predecessor, the still-powerful Jiang Zemin.

Vajpayee, who abruptly cut short a trip to Beijing as Indian foreign minister in 1979 when China invaded Vietnam, has recently held talks with Hu in Europe.

After delivering a speech at Peking University and attending a seminar on Sino-Indian relations, he will move on to Luoyang before winding up his trip in Shanghai.