26 May : President Pratibha Devisingh Patil on Wednesday arrived in Beijing to a red carpet welcome as the first Indian Head of the State to visit China in a decade for visit during which she will meet the top Chinese leadership and sign a number of agreements.
Patil, who arrived at the Beijing International Airport, was warmly welcomed by Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Hu Zhengyue and Indian Ambassador to China S Jaishankar.
During her six-day visit, the President will meet her Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao, Chairman of the National People’s Congress Wu Bangguo and Premier Wen Jiabao to discuss ways and means to expand the bilateral ties.
All bilateral issues and the situation in the region will be discussed during these meetings.
Political dialogue, cultural diplomacy and economic cooperation will be three crucial components of the visit, which the two countries pledged to utilise to deepen and expand their strategic cooperation.
Besides Beijing, Patil will travel to 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.
Ahead of her visit, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said in New Delhi that Patil’s visit also “signals our unequivocal commitment to deepen and expand our strategic and cooperative partnership with China.”
A number of agreements are under discussion between the two countries and are likely to be signed during the visit.
China had on Tuesday said 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.
Patil is the first Indian head of state to visit China in a decade. The then President K R Narayanan had paid a visit to China in 2000.
In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Jiang Yu said, “We welcome President Patil’s visit to China.”
“With this opportunity we will deepen bilateral understanding and cooperation to upgrade China and India relations to a higher level,” Jiang said.
Jiang said the visit is taking place when Sino-Indian relations are developing in a “comprehensive and fast manner as evidenced by frequent visits of high-level delegations to each other’s countries deepening the political mutual trust, progress and cooperation in various fields in major international and regional issues.”
The visit of President, who is accompanied by Minister of State for Food Processing Subodh Kant Sahay, three MPs and a high-level official delegation, is also expected to give boost to business ties between the two countries.
Bilateral trade between the two countries grew 34 percent in 2008 to touch $51.8 billion, though in 2009 it slipped to $43.27 billion due to global recession.