Indian President Starts 6 Day China Visit

[Lankan Ranger]

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Indian President Starts 6 Day China Visit

Indian President Pratibha Patil arrived here Wednesday, kicking off her six-day state visit to China.

During Patil's stay in Beijing, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee Wu Bangguo, Premier Wen Jiabao, and Jia Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference will hold talks or meet with her respectively.

Patil will also attend a reception marking the 60th anniversary of China-Indian diplomatic ties with Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping.

Besides Beijing, Patil will visit the pavilions of the Shanghai World Expo and go to Luoyang of central China's Henan Province, where she will attend the inauguration ceremony of a buddhist building of Indian style in the White Horse Temple, a famous temple in China.

Patil's visit is the first one by the head of state of India to China in recent ten years.

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua Tuesday, Patil said she was looking forward to visiting China and holding discussions with the Chinese leaders.

The president said that India and China are two large and populous developing countries and both of them focus on economic growth and social progress, so there are many areas in which the two countries can exchange views and learn from each other.

Indian president starts China visit - People's Daily Online

[Lankan Ranger]

Indian president arrives in China

President Pratibha Patil arrived on a six-day trip to China Wednesday at a time when the two Asian giants are marking the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations that have lately been scarred by distrust, perceptional differences and border tensions.

Patil will meet her Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao, inaugurate an Indian-style Buddhist temple and also visit the Shanghai World Expo. She will also take up the issue of China’s support to New Delhi’s claim for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council.

She will be joined by a 60-strong business delegation - an indicator of the strong business dimension of the ties - comprising members of the three apex chambers of India. Besides Beijing, she will visit Shanghai and Luoyang.

The president will meet Hu Thursday. She will also meet top Chinese leaders, including National People’s Congress Chairman Wu Bangguo and Premier Wen Jiabao.

Patil, who reached here around 6 p.m. Wednesday, was received at the airport by Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Hu Zhengyue. Indian Ambassador S. Jaishankar was also present.

Greeted by children wearing red jackets and white trousers and Chinese soldiers in blue, green and white, Patil told mediapersons that the India-China relationship is a wider one between two larger neighbours and two emerging powers that could contribute to regional peace, stability and prosperity.

Asked if she would discuss a seat for India in the Security Council with Hu, she said: “I think so.”

“We hope India will be considered,” Patil told reporters earlier onboard Air India One.

“We have strategic and cooperative partnership. We have also attained multi-pronged strategy for cooperation. We also have a shared vision for the 21st century,” she said.

On unresolved border issues that have often led to tensions between the neighbours, she said: “We seek fair and reasonable mutual settlement of this question. A framework has been put in place. There are special representatives from both the sides. We need to find solutions for such situation. There should be peace and tranquility in China border areas.”

Reading out from a written statement, she said: “My visit to China is aimed at enhancing trust, friendship and understanding between our two governments and our two peoples. It will deepen and expand the areas of our cooperation and thereby cement the partnership between our two countries.”

She added that the partnership between the two countries includes trade and investment, culture and arts, science and technology and people-to-people exchanges.

Patil also hoped that her visit will also give a fillip to business between the two Asian giants. “The two countries are working together to achieve the bilateral trade target of $60 billion in 2010.”

Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, who is accompanying Patil, told reporters in New Delhi that the two countries sought to go beyond unresolved issues like the border and look at the wider dimension of their multi-faceted relationship that is the focus of global attention.

A highlight of her visit will be in Luoyang in Henan province, where she is scheduled to dedicate to the Chinese people an Indian-style Buddhist temple that was inspired by the Sanchi Stupa in Madhya Pradesh.

At the Shanghai World Expo, a six-month event that kicked off April 30, Patil will visit the India pavilion that has become a hot spot with 25,000 visitors thronging the stalls of handicrafts and cuisine every day and jiving to Bollywood songs.

In Shanghai, the president will also inaugurate a statue of Nobel Laureaute Rabindranath Tagore who visited the city in 1924.

Indian president arrives in China, to push for more trade (Second Lead)

[Lankan Ranger]

---------- Post added at 08:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:05 PM ----------

[shiningindia]

are yaar it's totally wastage of time and money. she(president of india) knows that she is not going to gain anything from this visit. she only goes china as a tourist.

[Kinetic]

What it has to do with defence? President of India is just a show off the real ower belongs to the Cabinet ministers led by the PM.

[heavystorm]

India has president and prime minister, all Chinese know Xinge who is the prime minister of India, but no one knows the president of India.
Does the president of India have true puissance?

[sohan]

India has president and prime minister, all Chinese know Xinge who is the prime minister of India, but no one knows the president of India.
Does the president of India have true puissance?

The President of India or Rashtrapati (Hindi: राष्ट्रपति Sanskrit, lit. Lord of the realm) is the head of state and first citizen of India, as well as the Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces. Despite Article 53 of the Constitution stating the President can exercise their powers directly[1], with few exceptions, all of the authority vested in the President is in practice exercised by the Council of Ministers, headed by the Prime Minister.

This is what Wikipedia says about her powers.

[applesauce]

are yaar it's totally wastage of time and money. she(president of india) knows that she is not going to gain anything from this visit. she only goes china as a tourist.

ummm well then WELCOME, enjoy your stay, be sure to visit the great wall.

[fateh71]

are yaar it's totally wastage of time and money. she(president of india) knows that she is not going to gain anything from this visit. she only goes china as a tourist.

I don't at all agree, thats just an angry statement, thats not how diplomacy works.

There should be more exchange with China, which is easily one of the most important nations on earth, and India's neighbor. We share thousands of years of history as neighbors which is one of the most conflict free in world's history.

I welcome the move, hope it achieves something positive.

[xuxu1457]

Welcom my lady president~~

[IndianArmy]

On board Air India-1: President Pratibha Patil touched down in Beijing on Wednesday to a simple and warm welcome. The red carpet will be rolled out on Thursday when her week-long State visit officially begins with a meeting with President Hu Jintao at the Great Hall of the People.

Ms. Patil arrived at the Chinese capital amid alarmist western media reports — including one in the Guardian — indicating potential India-China tensions over unexplained Chinese constructions on the Brahmaputra River.

The mood on board Air India-1 was, however, one of cheerful optimism. Ms. Patil said India attached “great importance to China” and affirmed that the two Asian powers were poised to enter a phase of “peace, prosperity and cooperation.”

The President, who interacted with journalists on the flight, spoke about “a shared vision for the 21st century,” and a partnership that had evolved over the years from “the purely bilateral” to achieving common global objectives. As a case in point, she mentioned the exemplary unity of purpose witnessed at the climate change conference in Copenhagen in December last.

In an unusual gesture, Ms. Patil went beyond the text of her statement to take a wide gamut of questions, including stock ones on “years of mistrust” between the two countries intensified by super power ambitions on both sides. To this, her answer was that there was “enough space in the world for both countries to fulfil their individual aspirations and prosper.”

Asked about prospects for resolving the border dispute, she said that while there was scope for a “fair, reasonable and mutually satisfying solution,” it was important that both sides endeavoured to maintain peace and tranquillity on the borders pending such a solution.

Ms. Patil painted India-China relations on the large canvas of civilisational linkages and contacts established over many millennia, from “links along the Silk Route” and shared Buddhist scholarship and quests, to the trail blazed by such latter-day symbols of friendship as “Gurudev Tagore, Dr. Dwarkanath Kotnis and Professor Tan Yun Shan.”

Security Council seat

To a question whether she would take up the matter of Security Council seat for India during her stay, Ms. Patil said she would: “We hope China will back us on this, and yes, I will be raising it.”

Officials travelling with the President as well as Indian embassy sources in Beijing did not seem overly affected by the Guardian speculation on a grand Chinese plan to divert the waters of the Brahmaputra.

(The original source of the report appears to have been a blog).

They affirmed that a dam was on construction on the river. But this, according to the Chinese government, was only for power generation. The Indian side said the technical feasibility of carrying out such a massive diversion was also in doubt.

Indian officials admitted to a definite sense of warmth post-Copenhagen. The challenge then was to move forward on areas of common interest — bilaterally on trade, globally on climate change and Doha — while trying to lower the pitch on areas of conflict.

[shiningindia]

ummm well then WELCOME, enjoy your stay, be sure to visit the great wall.

yes...i hope she will enjoy the journey.

[trailblazer]

are yaar it's totally wastage of time and money. she(president of india) knows that she is not going to gain anything from this visit. she only goes china as a tourist

Hope she has some agenda for the visit and that it brings in positive change in relationship with China, or else it certainly will be a wastage of taxpayer's money

[gowthamraj]

Wow the women stand in back looks cool.

[SpArK]

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Wow the women stand in back looks cool.

pervert.. LOL