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| Azad in Beijing, woos the dragon | | |
ABID SHAH
New Delhi, Oct 18: Notwithstanding the diplomatic challenges and aggressive positioning that China has of late been opting for vis-à-vis India, Beijing is turning out to be a favourite destination for some of the higher ups from India.
No sooner than the Union Minister for Petroleum, Mr Murli Deora, returned from his sojourn in China, the Minister for Health Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad landed up in Beijing to open an Asia Pacific Health Conference.
The Government here released today the text of Mr Azad’s long speech where he lauded and profusely thanked the Chinese organisers of the fifth Asia-Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights (APCRSHR) for their extraordinary and excellent arrangements for delegates from all over the region. Mr Azad called for unity among the countries of the South to meet health challenges in a world that has been changing fast.
He called upon the developing world to stand united to face developed world’s obsessions leading to global warming and climate change. The developing world or South stood to bear the brunt despite a lower level of its per capita emissions against that of the developed world or the North, said Mr Azad in his Beijing speech.
Both Mr Deora and Mr Azad’s visits to China assume significance since they have taken place at a time when China has been raising questions regarding its borders with India, particularly borders in the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh in the North-East. There have been other Chinese overtures that had caused concern back home since Chinese Embassy here preferred to issue visas to Indian visitors from the State of Jammu and Kashmir to China and Hong Kong on separate sheets of paper which could be appended to their passports only for the purpose of the visit and could easily be removed thereafter.
India somehow tried to play down such Chinese actions while Beijing protested over what it called unnecessary Indian media campaign against China in the wake of incursions in Ladakh.
Thus, the visit of the two Ministers to Beijing is being seen here as more than a normal affair. Mr Deora was in China around the time when Pakistan Prime Minister, Mr Yousaf Raza Gilani, too was visiting Beijing. And during the bilateral talk with Mr Gilani Chinese leaders showed the inclination to help Pakistan in building dams and roads in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK). India protested against this.
Yet on his return Mr Deora said on last Friday in New Delhi that Chinese Premier Mr Wen Jiabo has expressed his keenness to meet Mr Manmohan Singh in Thailand during the three day Association of South East Nation (ASEAN) conference, beginning October 23. The same day (Friday) the Foreign Secretary, Ms Nirupama Rao, gave a long interview in official Indian media downplaying China’s menacing positioning against India.
Mr Azad who has been Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir before taking up his present assignment at the Centre is visiting Beijing in the backdrop of these diplomatic maneuverings by the two countries. And since this comes days before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Thailand where he may meet his Chinese counterpart, observers are watching Health Minister’s moves all the more closely. Some feel that Mr Azad, an astute hand at politics at his homestead, is doing his best to woo the proverbial Chinese dragon through his Beijing visit in such challenging times.
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