The Chinese are coming

Did Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee bring forward his visit to Bali by a day so as to accommodate a meeting with Chinese premier Wen Jia...

Did Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee bring forward his visit to Bali by a day so as to accommodate a meeting with Chinese premier Wen Jiabao? That was the speculation on the eve of Vajpayee8217;s departure for the Asean summit in Indonesia on Sunday, on the margins of which both leaders get together for the second time in four months.

It must be the Chinese season, clearly, as India and China8217;s special representatives, Principal Secretary Brajesh Mishra and Senior Vice-Minister Dai Bingguo meet in New Delhi later this month for their first round of talks on settling the boundary issue. Meanwhile, hardly six weeks from now, around November 24, the chairman of the national committee of the Chinese People8217;s Political Committee Conference, Jia Qinglin, will be in town. Comrade Jia, fourth in the new Chinese hierarchy, is said to owe his power to Jiang Zemin, now chairman of the Chinese Military Commission.

Then there was the trilateral meeting between External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxi and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov in New York some 10 days ago. Over mutton korma and dal makhni at the UN Millennium Plaza lunch, hosted by Sinha, Ivanov gallantly invited his counterparts to his dacha outside Moscow Sinha then said to Li, 8216;8216;Now its your turn!8217;8217; The Chinese shot back, 8216;8216;I am already looking for a good Chinese restaurant in New York when all of us return next year!8217;8217; Significantly, unlike his predecessor Tang Jiaxuan, who made a speech on how India and Pakistan should mend fences after the trilateral lunch in 2002, Li never didn8217;t bring up Pakistan at all.

Boy from Brazil

New York was also noteworthy for a trilateral summit meeting between Vajpayee and the presidents of South Africa and Brazil, Thabo Mbeki and Luis da Silva. Called the IBSA dialogue, which seems to have grown wings since Yashwant Sinha flew for the first trilateral meeting to Brasilia in June, the idea is to get the major nations from the three continents to talk. Mbeki will be coming to India in mid-October, while the Brazilian president is chief guest for Republic Day 2004.

Luis has clearly become quite an Indian favourite, what with his leftist credentials and his newfound determination to reform the Brazilian economy even if it calls for shock therapy. Indian ministers are gloomily wondering why they can8217;t take a leaf out of Luis8217; book.

Chiefs of Baghdad

One story that strangely got left out from being reported out of New York was the meeting between Yashwant Sinha and his Iraqi counterpart Hoshiar Al-Zebari, as well as the very suave and patrician Adnan Pachachi, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council. Both told Sinha that they would be happy if India sent troops to Iraq and especially in the northern, Kurdistan sector, although they stopped short of 8216;8216;inviting8217;8217; India.

Diplomatic observers pointed out that Al-Zebari is a Kurd himself. While Pachachi thanked Sinha for sending a copy of the Indian Constitution through India8217;s ambassador to Iraq B.B. Tyagi. The latest thinking on Iraq, Foreign Office sources say, is for India to resurrect its involvement in Iraq. Short of sending troops, New Delhi is likely to 8216;8216;do everything8217;8217;.

India gets a big ticket

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As the prime minister begins another visit abroad, the phrase 8216;8216;India is a rich country with poor people8217;8217; comes to mind. Those who have travelled with prime ministers over the years point out that more and more, money flows like water. So when the Indian missions in New York a fortnight ago got local transport companies to detail 92 cars for the Indian contingent, not one lotus-eating official sat up to take a second look.

Turned out that many of the limousines were getting 8216;8216;ticketed8217;8217; for parking violations e.With traffic always in a snarl, many of the limos were parked illegally all the time. A whopping 150,000, it was said, was going to be paid out by India only in parking fines.