The Hindu : Chinese party team meets BJP leaders

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 13, 2003

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National

Chinese party team meets BJP leaders

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI MARCH 12. A seven-member delegation of the Communist Party of China is now visiting here at the invitation of the Bharatiya Janata Party as part of a conscious attempt by the BJP to develop party-to-party contacts throughout the world.

A team of 12 BJP leaders, including the party president, Venkaiah Naidu, and the general secretaries, Pramod Mahajan, Rajnath Singh, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Anita Arya, held a meeting with the Chinese delegation led by alternate member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Wang Jiarui. After the meeting, Mr. Naidu hosted a lunch for the delegation.

In his welcome speech, Mr. Naidu expressed satisfaction that the governments of the two countries were engaged in normalisation of relations and detailed talks on the border issue had produced encouraging results. A point that was made by him, and was appreciated by his guests, was that the future course of relations between the two giants of Asia must not be held hostage to "past aberrations''. Mr. Naidu spoke admiringly of the "remarkable economic development'' that had taken place in China.

He also stressed that in the context of current challenges in the international arena there was a need for India and China to understand fully each other's views.

He hoped that the Iraq situation would not lead to a war while he emphasised that Iraq should fully comply with the United Nations' resolutions.

The Chinese delegation will be here till March 17 and the talks between the delegation and the BJP will continue tomorrow.

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