India feeler: if invite comes, leaders will go for Games opening

Having generated “diplomatic goodwill” in Beijing by making unprecedented security arrangements for the Olympic torch to pass...

Having generated “diplomatic goodwill” in Beijing by making unprecedented security arrangements for the Olympic torch to pass through Delhi without any major incident, the UPA government is now keen to take this forward so that any misunderstanding in the run-up to the event in Delhi does not negatively impact the tenor of the relationship in days to come.

In this connection, indications are that India will send out feelers that it would not turn down any invitation extended to India’s top political leadership to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympics in August. So far, China has not extended a high-level invite except for the customary invitations that go to the Indian Olympic Association and the Sports Ministry.

With Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon slated to be in Beijing on Monday for discussions among the five permanent invitees — India, China, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa — to the G-8 Summit in Japan, the sidelines, sources said, would be used to convey this message to Beijing.

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Much of the misunderstanding followed by general acrimony in India towards China’s attitude was sparked off when the Indian Ambassador to China Nirupama Rao was summoned well after midnight to the Chinese foreign office after Tibetans stormed into the Chinese embassy here. But now with the Olympic torch now out of the way, New Delhi is keen send the signal that the entire episode should be set aside.

Menon also plans to ensure that the few key bilateral meetings slotted in the coming months are not dictated by China’s hard line response to protests in India due to the Olympic torch.

In this context, New Delhi is feeling encouraged by the renewal of the agreement on sharing of flood season data for Brahmaputra. Secretary-level negotiations for this were held in Delhi just days before the torch was to arrive. China also agreed in-principle to set up two new upstream monitoring stations at these talks. The agreement will be signed when External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee travels to China in the next couple of months.

More significantly, the joint secretary-level sub-group on the boundary negotiations that was formed by the two Special Representatives is also slated to meet this month. Since this would be the first meeting of the sub-group, South Block wants to strike the right chord with Beijing.

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Besides this, India is keen to ensure that the Defence dialogue is more purposeful this time than it was in the first round last year. Though this was conceived as a secretary-level dialogue,China last year nominated a junior official which forced India too to send a joint secretary. To ensure that this does not repeat, India got an assurance from the Chinese side when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Beijing in January and the same was reflected in the joint vision statement.

No further progress has happened on this and the dates remain under discussion. India would like to push this so that there is some confidence building on issues regarding military activity along the Line of Actual Control that have led to protests of late by both sides.

On a broader plane, India and China will look to unite on a common position with Brazil, Mexico and South Africa on the question of fixing a mechanism for their participation in the G-8 Summit at Hokkaido in July. The five countries are keen that they play a substantive role in the summit and the resolution reflects their views too, particularly on key global issues like nuclear disarmament, climate change and WTO talks.