Amid a war of words between the two countries, Chinese premier Wen Jiabo and prime minister Manmohan Singh will have an "important" meeting in Thailand.
Prime minister Manmohan Singh and China’s premier Wen Jiabao are likely to hold a bilateral meeting on Saturday, when both reach the Thai resort town of Hua Hin to attend the Association of South East Nations (ASEAN) summit.
There has been no formal announcement yet on the expected meeting. While briefing reporters on the prime minister’s trip to Thailand on Wednesday, secretary (east) in the ministry of external affairs Neelakantan Ravi merely said that the bilateral talk’s date and time would be announced later.
However, with both leaders busy with ASEAN and the East Asian summit, the only door of opportunity is on Saturday, October 24, where the majority of the bilaterals will be bunched up.
The meeting between Singh and Wen assumes significance considering the mounting tension between the two Asian giants and the war of words that followed after Beijing slammed the prime minister’s visit to Arunachal earlier this month.
New Delhi’s worries go beyond the border issue. Equally if not more important is the sharing of river waters, especially with reports surfacing that China is attempting to build dams on the Brahmaputra, called the Tsangpo by the Chinese, in Tibet.Beijing has said the projects are “run of the river”, meaning there will be no diversion of the water by the projects.
However, China’s assurance has not satisfied India’s northeastern states for which the Brahmaputra and its tributaries are their very lifelines for agriculture and other purposes.
Alarmed at news of a dam being constructed by China, Assam’s chief minister Tarun Gogoi and Arunachal Pradesh’s chief minister Dorjee Khandu met the prime minister separately on Tuesday to express their fears.
Singh in turn promised them that he will raise the issue with Wen when he meets him in Hua Hin.
On the positive side, despite the differences between the two neighbours, India and China have agreed to cooperate on a slew of global issues. The two countries on Wednesday signed an agreement to cooperate on climate change and underlined the importance of having a common position for the Copenhagen conference.
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