India, China hold first major talks since Modi win

FE Team | Published: June 09, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

NEW DELHI, June 8 (agencies): China's foreign minister began a two-day visit to India Sunday for the first high-level talks between the world's two most populous nations since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took charge.
Wang Yi arrived in New Delhi as a special envoy of Chinese President Xi Jinping to "establish contact with the new government of India", the Indian foreign ministry said.
Despite his hardline nationalist reputation, Modi has been making overtures to traditional rivals China and Pakistan since his Bharatiya Janata Party swept to power last month.
The new Indian leader has invited Xi to visit later this year.
Wang is coming "to engage with our leadership and we will take it from there", foreign ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin told a news briefing last week.
The Chinese foreign minister arrived in the capital early Sunday morning and is set to hold talks with his new Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj later in the day, the foreign ministry said.
He is expected to call on Modi and President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday before leaving early the next day.
Foreign policy expert Ranjit Gupta told AFP the visit was a "good augury".
"China has gone all out to woo the new Indian government, which is a great gesture," Gupta, a member of the Indian Security Advisory Council of the US-India Institute, a Washington-based think-tank, said.
China is India's biggest trading partner, with two-way commerce totalling close to $70 billion. But India's trade deficit with China has soared to over $40 billion from just $1 billion in 2001-02, Indian figures show.
Experts say Modi must bridge the deficit by seeking greater access to the Chinese market, with the two sides targeting annual bilateral trade of $100 billion by 2015.
Modi warned China to shed its "expansionist mindset" at an election rally earlier this year. China hit back, saying it "never waged a war of aggression to occupy any inch of land of other countries".
The nuclear-armed nations, both with one-billion-plus populations, are expected to focus on economic ties and border issues during Wang's visit, following a territorial flare-up in April 2013.
India accused Chinese troops of intruding nearly 20 kilometres (12 miles) into Indian-claimed territory, triggering a three-week standoff that was resolved when forces from both sides pulled back.
The border between China and India has never been formally demarcated, although they have signed accords to maintain peace.
Meanwhile Tibet's government-in-exile, based in India, has pinned its hopes on Modi's government to speak up for Tibetans during Wang's visit.
The government-in-exile launched a renewed push this week for greater autonomy from Beijing, which has ruled the Himalayan territory since 1951.
But China last week dismissed any possibility of discussions on Tibet, calling Sangay an "out-and-out separatist".
India hosts the world's largest Tibetan exile population after offering refuge to the Dalai Lama. The spiritual leader fled across the Himalayas to India after a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule.
Meanwhile:Violence broke out Saturday in Greater Noida near the national capital after a BJP leader was shot dead by motorcycle-riding assailants, police said.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Vijay Pandit was shot dead in Dadri area.
After news of his death spread, around hundred of his supporters and BJP workers ransacked the area and torched many vehicles.
They pelted stones at the police, who resorted to cane charge and fired blanks.
Pandit was the husband of a local civic body chairperson.
Police said tension prevails in the area and additional forces have been deployed.
Meanwhile: At least 11 people, including four children, were killed and three seriously injured Saturday night when a goods train hit their car in Bihar's West Champaran district, police said.
The accident took place at the unmanned Rajghat railway crossing near Bettiah, about 200 km from Patna, when the car carrying people from a wedding including the groom, was hit by the goods train. "Four people were killed on the spot and seven succumbed to their injuries at a hospital," a district police official said.
The three injured, including the groom, are battling for their lives. There were 14 people in the car. According to police, all the victims were from one family.