International Herald Tribune

Nov. 29, 1996

JIANG OPENS LANDMARK VISIT TO INDIA

Beijing Leader urges Deeper Friendship

Reuters

NEW Delhi - The presidents of India and China said Thursday that friendship between the world's two most populous nations, which fought a brief border war in 1962, could be a key to world peace.

Shankar Dayal Sharma of India and Jiang Zemin of China spoke at a state banquet on the first day of Mr. Jiang's landmark three-day VISIT to India.

Mr. Jiang said he was convinced that the people of both countries "joining together" would be a great force and an important guarantee for Asian and world peace.

The two countries, home to one-third of humanity, fought a brief Himalayan border war in 1962, and troops are still deployed along both sides of the rugged line of control.

Only hours before the start of the visit, the first by a Chinese president to India, Tibetan demonstrators demanding that Beijing pull out of their homeland protested noisily in New Delhi.

More than 600 protesters burned an effigy of Mr. Jiang and the Chinese flag at a Tibetan refugee camp.

To keep delicate bilateral relations on track both India and China were expected to avoid dwelling on the contentious issue of Tibet during official talks Friday.

The Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, who is based in India, urged Mr. Jiang to stop what he called Chinese repression in Tibet but distanced himself from the protesters.

Mr. Jiang, accompanied to New Delhi by his foreign, foreign trade and civil affairs ministers and a 100-member business delegation, will meet Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, Foreign Minister Inder Kumar Gujral and business leaders.

"I am convinced that the Chinese and Indian peoples joining together will be a great force and an important guarantee for peace in Asia and the world at large," he said at the banquet.

"I can say for sure that our common interests far outweigh our differences, as neither of us poses a threat to the other," he added.

"The cooperation and friendship of Asia's two largest nations would be a powerful and enduring factor in promoting peace and stability in our continent and the world," Mr. Sharma said.

The Indian also made and apparent reference to China's friendship with Pakistan, India's traditional rival, saying New Delhi was concerned by actions that adversely affected regional security. Mr. Jiang will visit Pakistan after India.

India and China signed an agreement in 1993 to ease frontier tensions during a visit to Beijing by the prime minister at the time, P.V. Narashima Rao.

In august 1995, India and China Agreed to pull back their troops from four border posts in India's northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, parts of which are claimed by China.