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Jiang stresses on peace, dialogue

By P. S. Suryanarayana

KUALA LUMPUR FEB. 19. China is beginning to firm up its positions on the non-proliferation issues concerning Iraq, at one end of the U.S.' spectrum of foreign policy, and North Korea, at the other end.

The Chinese President, Jiang Zemin, today underlined the common denominator of his country's policies concerning the `proliferation' crises. In a conversation with the visiting Prime Minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, in Beijing, Mr. Jiang said China would press for the resolution of the Iraq issue through "political means within the framework of the United Nations."

On North Korea, the Chinese leader emphasised his preference for the `non-nuclearisation' of the Korean peninsula. "Peace and dialogue" would constitute China's common denominator as regards both the Iraq crisis and the North Korean puzzle.

While conveying China's policy, Mr. Jiang lost no opportunity to inform Mr. Thaksin of a subtle sub-text as regards North Korean.

The Chinese leader expressed the hope that the Korean question could be resolved through dialogue among all the parties concerned. There was no direct or explicit reference to the United Nations Security Council. This, according to regional diplomatic observers, is significant, given the fact that China had, at a recent meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), supported its move to refer the North Korean `proliferation' challenge to the U.N. Security Council. The noteworthy nuance is that the issue could be sorted out even outside the direct auspices of the U.N. Security Council.

It is in this context that China has said that its recent vote at the IAEA Board meeting did not imply any support for a U.N. intervention as regards North Korea now.

The main reason why Beijing is taking this line has to do with the importance of the North Korean question as a prime geo-strategic issue in China's immediate neighbourhood.

In contrast, China is governed by its global geopolitics as regards Iraq. It is in this light that the Chinese Foreign Minister, Tang Jiaxuan, told his French counterpart, Dominique de Villepin, in a telephonic conversation on Tuesday that the ongoing U.N. weapons inspections in Iraq should be carried forward at this time.

By informing Mr. de Villepin that the inspections route "is still our direction of efforts," Mr. Tang left the international community in no doubt that China has fully tuned itself to the French wavelength in the ongoing confrontation between Paris and Washington over Iraq.

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