Chinese Prime Minister arrives in Delhi

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao arrived in Delhi, on three-day visit during which he would hold wide-ranging talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. These include political announcements, pacts for enhancing economic cooperation, and a new cultural-exchange program besides those in the fields of civil aviation, customs and water resources.

It was no surprise that Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao started his visit to India from the southern city of Bangalore - the information technology hub of the subcontinent and one of world’s four biggest technology clusters. He said that his country would send 100 students to Bangalore for training in Information Technology.

He was received at the airport by External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh, Minister of State for Personnel Suresh Pachauri, Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and India’s Ambassador to China Nalin Suri.

China ambitions to become a global leader in the software sector, like it already is in hardware. Wen laid a lot of stress on the need for India and China to come closer in the areas of science and technology. “Science and technology can be a very effective bridge”, he said.

The Chinese Premier suggested forming a joint steering committee to guide bilateral cooperation in science and technology, and called for promotion of collaboration at the level of institutions in the two countries and more student and faculty exchange.

The two sides will also sign an accord for setting up of a financial-dialogue mechanism.

Ahead of the visit, Wen had suggested that India and China should handle their relations from a “strategic high ground” and said that a solution to the boundary issue was possible if the two sides showed mutual accommodation “while taking the reality into account”.

Besides holding talks with the Prime Minister, Wen will also call on President A P J Abdul Kalam, Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

Wen’s visit to India came about when Singh invited him to visit New Delhi after both met each other at the sidelines of a summit of the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) held in the Laotian capital of Vientiane last year.

Two-way trade has been growing at 30 percent a year for the past eight years, and could surpass $30 billion by 2010 from the current $13 billion. That would put China ahead of the United States as India’s largest trading partner.

Each with more than one billion people, India and China are emerging as global diplomatic heavyweights.