Friend of Pak China shakes hand with India

Friend of Pak China shakes hand with India
JYOTI MALHOTRA

NEW DELHI, JANUARY 11: Amidst ample evidence of the ``special'' relationship between Pakistan and China -- including the purchase of Chinese warships by Islamabad -- Chinese leader Li Peng arrived in the capital from Mumbai today, on the second leg of his visit to India.

Li, the second most powerful man in China, who is now Chairman of the standing committee of the National People's Congress, got down to business soon after his arrival, meeting Vice-President Krishan Kant, Speaker GMC Balayogi and a host of leaders from the parliamentary parties.

From Washington, meanwhile, a Pentagon report delineated the nexus between Pakistan and China in the acquisition of missile and nuclear technology for advanced defence systems. Fearful of India's ``regional and global power aspirations,'' the report said, Pakistan ``continued to seek close security ties with China as a balance.''

Declaring that India's missile and nuclear programme was indigenous, the Pentagon report went on to add, ``During the last several years, Pakistan has received assistance in the production of nuclear weapons and missiles from both China and North Korea, which will help it attain the goal of self-sufficiency.''

In Delhi earlier in the day, the city police picked up about two score Tibetan refugees demonstrating against the visit of the Chinese leader, bringing back memories of a far bigger crackdown against the Tibetans in December 1991, when Li was visiting as prime minister of China.

Li's eight-day tour of India -- he will go to Bangalore and Mysore on January 15 after meeting Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on his return from his travel abroad -- indicates Beijing's interest in sizing up India, as it conclusively emerges from international isolation after the Pokharan tests.

And despite the Chinese leader's proclaimed emphasis on a ``multipolar'' world, China's self-confessed ``all-weather'' friendship with Pakistan cuts across all its other diplomatic relationships, analysts here said.

New Delhi remains disturbed, but unsurprised, about this all-consuming relationship between the two countries. At Li's meetings with Minister for External Affairs Jaswant Singh tomorrow and Vajpayee on Monday, many issues will be raised by both sides.

India would like to speed up delineation of the Line of Actual Control, believing that problems left over by history must not be handed over to yet another generation to deal with.

On the other hand, the Government is clear that the ``turnaround in relations'' has definitely been achieved, putting at rest the hostility sparked off by India's nuclear tests in mid-1998.

Meanwhile, Pakistani chief of naval staff Abdul Aziz Mirza was quoted as saying in News International that the Pakistani navy would buy a frontline Chinese warship and build three others indigenously under technology transfer, as part of a $630-million modernisation drive.

Mirza said the induction of the Chinese warships was part of a plan to phase out British-built destroyers over the next 10 years and that their costs were competitive when compared to those bought from western nations.

According to the Pentagon report, meanwhile, New Delhi's ballistic missile programme was extensive and indigenous, while Islamabad, ``driven by its perceived need to counter India's conventional superiority and nuclear capability'' receives aid from abroad.

However, Pakistan has less of a military production infrastructure than India, and as a result was forced to depend on outside support for its efforts for several years, the report said.