Modi visit: India announces e-visa for Chinese nationals, 24 agreements signed, border on agenda
Sutirtho Patronobis and Agencies, Hindustan Times, Beijing| Updated: May 15, 2015 19:37 IST
Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. (Photo: PMO India Twitter account)
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more... and China decided on Friday to seek a political solution to a vexed boundary dispute and announced a set of confidence-building measures as Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked Beijing to reconsider its approach to contentious Sino-Indian issues.
Modi’s maiden China visit after taking over as PM has witnessed a visible warming of ties between the two Asian giants but festering problems remain, including tensions on the border, growing bonhomie between China and Pakistan and an increasingly assertive Chinese navy in the Indian Ocean.
"We must try to settle the boundary question quickly. The solution we choose should do more than settle the boundary question, in a manner that transforms our relationship and not cause new disruptions,” Modi said in an address at the prestigious Tsinghua University.
The two countries agreed to start annual visits between their militaries, expand exchanges between the border commanders and start using a military hotline that has been discussed in recent years to defuse flare-ups on the border, according to a joint statement.
Modi met premier Li Keqiang for over two hours and discussed a wide range of issues, including a yawning trade imbalance, terrorism, investment, climate change and UN reforms but found some time to take in the sights and sounds of Beijing, even clicking a grinning selfie with the Chinese PM.
As many as 24 agreements were signed during a two-hour meeting between Modi and Li at the Great Hall of the People; the deals included agreement on railway cooperation, space cooperation, cooperation between Doordarshan and China Central Television and the opening of new consulates in Chennai and Chengdu.
Modi also announced Chinese nationals would get e-visas for India, an effort to attract more tourists to India and boost people-to-people interaction.
But the boundary dispute that even led to a bloody war in 1962 remained in focus through the day.
Modi said a shadow of uncertainty would hang over the frontier until India and China agreed on the line of actual control as Li admitted to disagreements between the neighbours but said common interests outweighed them.
"That is why I have proposed resuming the process of clarifying the LAC. We can do this without prejudice to our position on the boundary question," the Indian PM said.
An agreement was also reached to activate “a hotline between the two military headquarters,” foreign secretary Jaishankar said. “Counter-terrorism featured strongly (in Modi-Li discussions). The recent attacks in Kabul and Karachi came up. The sense of the discussion was the terrorism was shared threat and we need to work more closely,” Jaishankar said.
He, however, emphasised that the border dispute should not prevent progress in India-China ties, a sentiment shared by Li during their talks at the Great Hall of the People.
Li and Modi spent several hours together besides the talks. Both attended a rare and combined Yoga-Taichi performance by Chinese and a few Indian practitioners at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing later in the afternoon.
Modi is to visit the financial hub of Shanghai on Saturday before travelling on to Mongolia and South Korea.
