Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao arrives in New Delhi

China : India require special care
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao arrives in New Delhi,
China on Monday said Sino-India relations were "very fragile" requiring special care, to which India responded by affirming that its approach was "very rational".
Wen lands in New Delhi on Wednesday along with a biggest ever delegation of 400 businessmen, senior ministers and officials for the three-day visit which Beijing has described as a "big event."The Chinese Premier will have discussions with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh on a host of security and strategic issues, including issuance of stapled visa by China to residents of Jammu and Kashmir, greater market access for Indian goods to that country's market and UN reforms.

Two neighbours will be holding wide-ranging discussions on a range of issues-bilateral, global, regional and of mutual interest and a number of agreements and MoUs are likely to be signed or concluded during the visit, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vishnu Prakash told reporters.
On addressing conference, Chinese Ambassador to India Zhang Yan said "China-India relations are very fragile and very easy to be damaged and very difficult to repair. Therefore, they need special care in the information age."
"To achieve this, the government should provide guidance to the public to avoid a war of words," Zhang said, adding that his country views India's rise as "positive" and as an "opportunity" to China.

Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, who was present too at the conference, sought to address the feelings of the Chinese envoy,by telling him that India has a "very ommonsensical" and "very rational" approach to China.Eager in helping to ease some of the irritants that has cropped up in the past one year between the two countries, the visit is expected to provide further impetus to the multi-faceted bilateral ties.The activities of Chinese firms in Pakistan-occupied- Kashmir(PoK), increasing military sales to Pakistan and China- Pak civil nuclear co-operation are some of the Indian concerns that will be raised during the visit.

India has been maintaining that it was engaged with all its interlocutors, including China, over its concerns on terrorism which emanates from this country's neighborhood.Noting that India was in touch with Chinese side on the growing trade imbalance, Prakash said efforts were also underway to have better market access for Indian products such as IT services and agricultural farm products.
Asked if the stapled visa issue will be resolved during Wen's visit, Gautam Bambawale, Joint Secretary (East Asia) in the Ministry of External Affairs, said "We have raised (the issue) with Chinese side for last many months and we hope the Chinese side will address the issue. But whether it will happen today, tomorrow, during the visit or after the visit".

India and China are managing their relationship well and looking for long-term solutions to resolve their differences as the "old mindset still prevails", Indian Ambassador to China has said, hoping that Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to India would increase bilateral cooperation.

"Even on our differences, we have managed them well while seeking long-term solutions," Ambassador S Jaishankar said in an interview to Chinese news agency, Xinhua, ahead of Wen's 15th-17th December visit to India.The two countries have held interactions in a range of fields, from agriculture and environment to urbanisation and transport, he said.The convergence of interests of India and China will transcend rhetoric and manifest itself in substantial cooperation and interaction, Jaishankar who is in New Delhi to make preparations for Wen's visit, said."This could be expressed in different dimensions of our relationship: on bilateral ties, on regional questions and on global issues," he said.India hoped Wen's visit would raise the level of bilateral cooperation, Jaishankar said adding that relations had developed positively since Premier's last visit in 2005, when China and India agreed to establish a "strategic and cooperative partnership for peace and prosperity."

With regard to problems in Sino-Indian relations, he said most of the issues were historic and in other cases, "the old mindset still prevails." "The question really boils down to whether one recognises the reality of growing inter-dependence in the contemporary world," he said, adding the risks of not getting along were very high.
He said that so long as world views were dominated by the balance of power and national competition, issues in the relationship would get more prominence than they probably deserved.