Thaindian News

New Delhi/Beijing, April 5 (IANS) External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna arrived in Beijing Monday on a four-day visit, during which India is expected to raise its key concerns over the issuing of stapled visas to Indians from Jammu and Kashmir and Chinese activities in that state.
Krishna was received at the Beijing airport by Chinese officials and Indian Ambassador to China S. Jaishankar and other senior Indian diplomats.

Krishna, who is on his first visit to Beijing since he became foreign minister May last year, will Tuesday address the China Institute of International Studies, (CIIS) on Sino-Indian relations in the 21st century.

The minister will hold wide-ranging talks with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi in Beijing and call on Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao Wednesday.

Krishna will formally kick off the celebrations to mark the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and China at the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing with a play on Emperor Ashoka directed by Manipuri playwright Ratan Thiyam.

Krishna’s visit to Beijing comes ahead of a likely meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese President Hu Jintao in Washington and Brasilia later this month.

The discussions will cover an entire gamut of bilateral relations, including the boundary dispute and issues relating to bilateral trade which has tiled in favour of Beijing.

The two sides are expected to set dates for the 14th round of talks between their special representatives to resolve the boundary dispute that triggered a war in 1962.

Ahead of the talks, India has said that it will raise its key concerns with the Chinese leadership during the visit, including Chinese infrastructure activities in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.

Officials of the external affairs ministry Saturday asked China to stop issuing stapled visas to Indians from Jammu and Kashmir and asked Beijing to be sensitive to New Delhi’s “core concern” on this issue.

India is also hoping that China will declare its support for New Delhi’s candidature for a permanent seat in an expanded UN Security Council this year.

Despite differences over a host of issues, bilateral trade is burgeoning and is now estimated to be $43 billion in 2009, but with India’s trade deficit turning out to be whopping $15.8 billion.

India is set to press for greater market access to Indian commodities and the easing of barriers to promote more balanced trade relations.