Recriminations between India and China over Arunachal Pradesh and other issues are expected to figure when the foreign ministers of the two countries meet on the sideline of a trilateral meeting next week in Bangalore.
The trilateral meeting of RIC (Russia, India and China) will be attended by External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, his Chinese and Russian counter parts Yang Jiechi and Sergei Lavrov respectively on October 27.
The three-nation meeting takes place in the backdrop of recent unsavory developments in Sino-Indian relationship particularly on the issue of Arunachal Pradesh and Chinese incursions into Indian territory.
These issues are also expected to figure during a possible meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao who has expressed his desire to meet his Indian counterpart on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Thailand next week.
Wen conveyed his wish during a meeting with Petroleum Minister Murli Deora who was on a visit to China to attend a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meet last week. The Chinese leader's remarks came after Beijing had raked up its claim over Arunachal Pradesh questioning Singh's visit there on October 3 and India hit back on Chinese involvement in projects in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
On the agenda of the bilateral meeting between Krishna and Jiechi, sources said, "whenever there is a trilateral meet, which provides a good opportunity for the political exchanges, the bilateral meetings also takes place....The entire gamut of the relationship is discussed during these meetings."
The trilateral meet will focus on the issues of energy security, climate change, counter-terrorism and trans-national crime among other host of matters of common interest.
The RIC has a common agenda in which the three emerging economies of the world outline their common goals and objectives and try to forge synergies to meet those goals. Another issue that has cropped up between India and China in recent days is the misuse of visas by Chinese nationals who entered on business visas and are now employed in different projects across the country.
New Delhi recently gave time till October to these Chinese nationals to convert their business visa to employment visa.
Sources said there was no new visa regime and these norms were being undertaken only to streamlines the process and stop "misuse" of business visas.
They also said the External Affairs Ministry was in touch with the Home Ministry on the issue to avoid delay in projects taken up by various foreign professionals seeking proper visa such as employment visa.
These steps have not been taken abruptly and there have been counsellor-level talks with various countries on the visa issue. PTI
