Article from the yellow daily [ Global times ]
The fifth stand-alone meeting of foreign ministers of India, Russia and China in Bangalore takes place Tuesday – two days after India's prime minister called the Dalai Lama an "honored guest."
Besides discussing ways to expand cooperation in regional and international issues such as the global financial crisis, terrorism and UN reforms, the daylong meeting also includes bilateral talks between Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna and his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi.
Though Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had a "frank and constructive" discussion Sunday over the long-running border dispute and agreed at the ASEAN summit in Thailand to maintain peace and tranquility at the border, problems still remain.
After the meeting with Wen, Singh told reporters, "I explained to Premier Wen that the Dalai Lama is our honored guest and he is a religious leader. ... (But) we do not allow Tibetan refugees to indulge in political activities, and proof of that is that we took resolute action against some Tibetans during the Olympics (torch relay) last year following reports that some refugees might create problems."
Beijing has voiced its annoyance with New Delhi over a recent visit by Singh to southern Tibet (which India calls Arunachal Pradesh) and to a proposed November 8 visit to the territory by the exiled Dalai Lama.
In Friday night's appeal by the Chinese embassy in Delhi asking the ministry to prevent the Dalai Lama's arrival, Krishna told the Hindu newspaper that the countries had "become mature global players. We have to realize the responsibility cast upon us. We have to tread very cautiously."
Some Indian analysts have gone as far as saying that by allowing the Dalai Lama to visit southern Tibet, India is actually reclaiming sovereignty over the land.
An article titled "This is unnecessary provocation" published by The Times of India, on the other hand, pointed out that the only viable solution now for the Sino-Indian territory disputes is to freeze the status quo.
Many other problems facing New Delhi need to be solved, such as the radical left becoming increasingly active, and conflict with Pakistan and Bangladesh. In that regard, provoking Beijing is in no way constructive, the article said.
Ties between India and China have improved vastly since a brief border war in the region in the 1960s, but they remain divided over territorial claims that contributed to the conflict. In recent years, the two sides have held 13 rounds of talks on settling their border dispute but have made little progress.
"Becoming a major world power is the goal pursued by several generations of Indian politicians. No matter which party comes to power, the government sets 'world power' among India's strategic objectives," said Lin Fengjun, a professor of international relations from Peking University.
India's responde on CNN -IBN
Itanagar: Despite objections from China, New Delhi has cleared Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama's week-long visit to Arunachal Pradesh, which will take him to the 300-year-old Tawang monastery among other places, from November 8.
Showing a copy of the External Affairs Ministry's letter to reporters, the chairperson of the state level reception committee, T G Rinpoche, said on Monday that the ministry had cleared the visit on October 19 and it was conveyed the next day.
However, Rinpoche explained, the files containing the ministry's clearance were not handed over to Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu because of the model code of conduct in force for the Assembly elections.
Also, letters signed by director of the External Affairs Ministry, Monica Jain, directing for adequate security arrangement were sent to the chief secretaries of West Bengal, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, he said.
Khandu had told the media on Sunday that the state had not received the clearance of the External Affairs Ministry, though the deputy commissioner of Tawang had received a communication in this regard from Dharamsala.
Rinpoche welcomed all, including devotees, interested to attend the Dalai Lama's discourses at Tawang from November 9 to 11, at Dirang on November 12, Bomdial on November 13 and Itanagar on November 14.
The Dalai Lama will leave from Dharamshala for Japan on October 29 and arrive in Guwahati on November eight via Kolkata. He will leave for Tawang via a helicopter.
The state level committee and local committees are making arrangements for issue of inner-line permits for people coming from elsewhere in India and restricted area permits for foreigners.
The spiritual leader will deliver his discourses from Yidga Choszin Tawang where he will inaugurate a modern hospital for which he had donated Rs 20 lakh.
This will be his fifth visit to the town since he fled Tibet in 1959 to India via the Tawang route. He had visited the place in 1983, 1997 and 2003.
Overall, this will be his sixth visit to the state. During a visit in 2003 he had skipped Tawang and went to the western side, dominated by the Mahayana sect Buddhists, and again to the eastern part inhabited by people belonging to the Theravagda sect.
Meanwhile, Rinpoche, a close aide of the Dalai Lama from Tawang, described the clearnce of the spiritual leader's visit to Arunachal Pradesh as a 'right step'.
''We treat the Dalai Lama as the reincarnation of 'Avaloktaswara', the god of compassion, and even a glimpse of His Holiness purifies the soul which is the goal of every human being.''
''We have been holding mass prayers in the famed Gaden Namgyel Lhaste, commonly known as Tawang monastery, and in every household in the entire Mon region comprising three districts in western Arunachal since last one year for the clearance," Rinpoche, a monk turned politician, said.
Asked if Arunachalees are grateful to the Centre for taking a bold stand in the face of Chinese objection, Rinpoche said, ''If it were any other country, we should have expressed gratefulness.''
Asked why China is objecting to the Dalai Lama's visit to Tawang and other parts of Arunachal, Rinpoche, a former minister and a firebrand Buddhist leader, said China was using it as a bargaining strategy to resolve border disputes.
Rinpoche had led monks of the Tawang monastery to take out a procession violating prohibitory orders to express soliderity with Tibetans across the border during last year's movement at Lhasa.
The Dalai Lama is not the issue at all and the Indian side should be very cautious while dealing with China on the border row as Chinese Presidnet Hu Jintao having worked as chairman of the Tibet Autonomus Region for over a decade has thorough knowldge of the Sino-India border, Rinpoche said.
The yellow and the cirmson-clad monk, who was seen doing the services with the Dalai Lama at a local gompa here during his last visit in 2003, regretted that the Indian side, who are engaged in talks with China for solving the vexed border dispute, does not have any one having thorough knowledge of the border.
He said on one hand China refuses to honour the 1940 Shimla agreement between the British and Tibetan authoritites on McMohan line and on the other claimed 90,000 square kilometres of territory that stretches beyond Arunachal Pradesh to the northern bank of the Brhamaputra in Assam which was once taken over by soldiers of the 33rd King of Tibet Songtsen Gompo.
Once Mongolian soldiers had conquered China. But on the basis of that historical fact, can China be called a part of Mongolia now? Rinpoche asked to drive home his point.
Its time to see what happens after the Obama visit in November. As it goes now, its official that the Dalai Lama is going to visit Tawang. Great going GOI. For once you showed the spine.
Will this have repercussions? Will there be Skrimishes after november? These are the unanswered question.
