Beijing: President Pratibha Patil will meet her Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao on Thursday in the first state visit by an Indian head of state to China in 10 years. Before this, President K R Narayanan had visited China in 2000.
President Patil arrived in Beijing to a red carpet welcome at the Beijing International Airport by Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister, Hu Zhengyue and Indian Ambassador to China, S Jaishankar.
During this visit the President will meet the top Chinese leadership. A number of agreements are under discussion between the two countries and are likely to be signed during the visit. She is also expected to take up the sticking points between India and China in the crucial meet.
She indicated that she would be taking up the issue of India's demand for a permanent place in the UN Security Council, which China has persistently resisted. China does not support India for permanent membership of the UN Security Council and even tried to resist the Indo-US nuclear deal before finally giving in.
"We hope it will be considered," said the President, India.
There has been distrust between India and China in the recent past. Some of the issues are expected to be raised when the President meets the Chinese leadership are as follows:
- China continues to issue stapled visas to resident Kashmiris
- It has strengthened its military infrastructure in Tibet
- It is aggressively renewing its claim on Arunachal Pradesh by objecting to visits of the Prime Minister and the Dalai Lama
- China has advocated a nuclear deal for Pakistan
- It has built nuclear plants in Pakistan with total disregard to NSG guidelines
Pratibha Patil believes that there is space for both countries to grow together despite the differences."There is enough space in the world for both countries to fulfill their aspirations of development and both the countries can go and prosper together," she said.
During her six-day visit, the President will also meet Chairman of the National People's Congress Wu Bangguo and Premier Wen Jiabao to discuss ways and means to expand the bilateral ties.
Ahead of her visit, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said in New Delhi that Patil's visit "signals our unequivocal commitment to deepen and expand our strategic and cooperative partnership with China."
Political dialogue, cultural diplomacy and economic cooperation will be the crucial components that will be utilized to achieve this.
Patil will also visit Loyang in central China, where she will inaugurate the famous White Horse Buddhist temple, and Shanghai where she will visit India and China Pavilions at the Shanghai Expo 2010 and address members of India-China business forum.
China said yesterday that the two countries would use the opportunity to deepen their bilateral understanding and cooperation to upgrade the Sino-India relations to a higher level.
"We welcome President Patil's visit to China," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Jiang Yu had said. (With PTI inputs)