Indian PM's speech brings relations closer
( 2003-06-24 00:19) (China Daily)
For the more than 300 students and teachers from Peking University who
listened to visiting Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's speech Monday,
Sino-Indian relations seemed that much closer when they realized how involved
Sino-Indian ties are.
"I think there is no reason for the two countries
to regard each other as enemies since their friendship could be traced back more
than one thousand year,'' said Gao Yan, a graduate student of the School of
Foreign Languages at the university.
"As China and India are the two
largest developing nations and also neighbours, to develop bilateral relations
is a wiser choice for the two rather than being divisive rivalry,'' Gao
said.
"I think Vajpayee's visit is a fresh start for the relations
between the two, because I can see that India has shown their stronger
willingness to enhance relations with China,'' he continued.
Gao said
there is a need for both countries to promote mutual understanding.
Gao
said that many people in China were not as familiar with Sino-Indian relations
as they were with some other neighbouring countries.
The 78-year-old
prime minister attended a ceremony to mark the opening of a Centre for Indian
Studies at Peking University before his speech. He promised that New Delhi would
provide US$21,500 a year to support it and a scholarship for one of its Chinese
students to visit India.
In his half--hour-long speech at the Overseas
Exchange Centre of the university, Vajpayee called for closer co-operation
between the two countries, stressing "combined strength'' and "complementarity''
of Indian-China partnership.
"We are both at the forefront of developing
and applying the technologies, which drive the knowledge-based
economy.
"If we acted in concert, it would be very difficult for the
world to ignore us.
"We should focus on the simple truth that there is no
objective reason for discord between us, and neither of us is a threat to
the other,'' he said.
Vajpayee brought a 40-plus entrepreneurs delegation
along with senior leaders.
Amit Mitra, secretary general of the
Federation of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told China Daily
Monday that at least five companies in the visiting business group had factories
in China.
Although trade between India and China is growing, it remains
at a very low level given that the two nations have more than a third of the
world's population, said Mitra.
"But we are more than happy to see that
now it is speeding up,'' Mitra said.
According to Chinese figures, the
Sino-Indian trade volume in the last four months reached US$2.31 billion, of
which China's exports to India were US$980 million, up 42 per cent, while
China's imports totalled US$1.33 billion, up 101 per cent.
As the two
largest developing nations, India and China have witnessed an improvement in
their economic exchanges from simple cargo trade to comprehensive co-operation
covering trade, project contracts and mutual investment, said Mitra .
He
listed a number of potential fields for future business co-operation, such as
entertainment, bio-technology, medicine, IT and manufacturing.
"It
(co-operation) gives us the reason to have a good expectation of India-China
economic relations,'' he said.
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