New China Premier Visits India         05/19 15:15

   NEW DELHI (AP) -- Just weeks after a tense border standoff, China's new 
premier visited India on Sunday on his first foreign trip as the neighboring 
giants look to speed up efforts to settle a decades-old boundary dispute and 
boost economic ties.

   Premier Li Keqiang met with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the two 
leaders emphasized that efforts should be made to resolve the border dispute 
between the two countries which led to a bloody war in 1962, India's External 
Affairs Ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said.

   The two leaders also underscored the need for maintaining peace and 
tranquility along the de facto border pending resolution of the boundary issue, 
Akbaruddin said.

   In a written statement on his arrival in the Indian capital, Li said China 
regarded India as an important partner and friend and expressed the hope that 
his visit would inject new vigor into their cooperative partnership, the Press 
Trust of India news agency reported.

   Li said both China and India were speeding up their development and making 
steady efforts to boost their economy and improve people's lives.

   The statement said the major markets of India and China could complement 
each other and fulfill the need for common development with win-win results, 
PTI reported.

   China says Li's choice of India for his first trip abroad since taking 
office in March shows the importance Beijing attaches to improving relations 
with New Delhi.

   "We think very highly of this gesture because it is our view that high-level 
political exchanges between our two countries are an important aspect and 
vehicle for our expanded cooperation," said Akbaruddin.

   Jasjit Singh, a defense analyst and director of the Center for Strategic and 
International Studies in New Delhi, said last month's border standoff was 
unlikely to overshadow Li's three-day visit, the first stop of a foreign tour 
that also includes Pakistan, Switzerland and Germany.

   Singh said Indian and Chinese leaders are likely to review border talks that 
have failed to produce a breakthrough despite 15 rounds of discussions over the 
past 10 years. The two sides also will probably discuss working together in 
Afghanistan after next year's U.S. pullout and cooperation with Southeast Asian 
countries, he said.

   But tensions run high between the two nations. China already sees itself as 
Asia's great power, while India hopes its increasing economic and military 
might --- though still far below its neighbor's --- will eventually put it in 
the same league.

   While China has worked to shore up relationships with Nepal and Sri Lanka in 
India's traditional South Asian sphere of influence, India has been venturing 
into partnerships with Southeast Asian nations.

   Other irritants remain in the bilateral relationship. China is a longtime 
ally and weapons supplier to Pakistan, India's bitter rival. Also, the presence 
in India of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and the self-declared 
Tibetan government-in-exile are a source of tension. China accuses the Dalai 
Lama of wanting to split Tibet off from the rest of China, but he says he seeks 
more autonomy for Tibetans, not independence.

   Unresolved border issues between the two nations have flared as well.

   In last month's incident, India said Chinese troops crossed the countries' 
de facto border on April 15 and pitched camp in the Depsang valley in the 
Ladakh region of eastern Kashmir. New Delhi responded with diplomatic protests 
and then moved its soldiers just 300 meters (yards) from the Chinese position.

   The two sides negotiated a peaceful end to the standoff by withdrawing 
troops to their original positions in the Ladakh area.

   Gautam Bambawale, a senior external affairs ministry official, said Saturday 
that India and China are negotiating a Border Defense Cooperation Agreement, 
but declined to give details. Indian media reports said the agreement proposes 
a freezing of troop levels in the disputed border region as the two countries 
make efforts to settle the issue.

   Bambawale also said Indian and Chinese officials recently held talks in 
Beijing on the future of Afghanistan. China, India and Russia have discussed 
the matter trilaterally with the idea of giving full support to Afghanistan's 
government as it makes the transition following the withdrawal of U.S. forces 
in 2014.

   Later Sunday, Li was to attend a dinner hosted by Singh.

   Delegation-level talks between the two sides are scheduled for Monday. Li is 
to attend a business summit in Mumbai, India's financial capital, among other 
activities.

   The border spat last month prompted the Indian opposition and media to 
pressure the government to take on China and call off Li's visit. The 
government, however, chose to go ahead with the trip, highlighting its policy 
of trying to widen areas of cooperation with China while attempting to resolve 
key differences.

   China has become India's biggest trading partner, with two-way trade jumping 
from $5 billion in 2002 to nearly $75 billion in 2011, although that figure 
declined to $61.5 billion last year because of the global economic downturn. 
Trade remains heavily skewed in China's favor, another source of concern for 
India.

   India and China have had chilly relations since they fought a brief but 
bloody border war in 1962.

   India says China is occupying 38,000 square kilometers (15,000 square miles) 
of its territory in the Aksai Chin plateau in the western Himalayas, while 
China claims around 90,000 square kilometers (35,000 square miles) in India's 
northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh.

   Dorjee Tseten, director of Students for a Free Tibet, said Sunday that New 
Delhi police had declined permission for Tibetans to hold a demonstration 
against Li's visit.

   "Tibetan activists are currently on the run evading imminent police arrest," 
he said in a statement, complaining of a heavy police presence in a New Delhi 
area where a large number of Tibetans-in-exile live.

   Police overpowered and detained a Tibetan man as he tried to burn the 
Chinese flag near China's embassy in the Indian capital.

   Police, however, allowed about two dozen members of Shiv Sena, a Hindu 
right-wing political party, to demonstrate near India's Parliament, where they 
burned an effigy of the Chinese premier.

   "Go back, go back," chanted the protesters, who also carried placards urging 
the Indian government to respond toughly to China's alleged border incursion. 
The powerful regional party held power in Mumbai from 1995 to 2000.


(KA)