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All eyes on Vajpayee-Hu meet today

By Amit Baruah

St. PETERSBURG May 30. Though the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, will meet others, all eyes are on the first-ever encounter he will have with the new Chinese President, Hu Jintao, in this historic Russian city tomorrow.

As world leaders gather here for the city's 300th anniversary celebrations, a grand show has been mounted by the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, to showcase his "new" nation.

Mr. Vajpayee, officials said, will meet Mr. Putin (time has been found for the Prime Minister despite all the guests the Russian President has invited) as well as the French and British leaders, Jacques Chirac and Tony Blair.

The Vajpayee-Hu meeting is being seen as significant on account of one simple fact — that it is happening. These meetings are usually formal affairs, where form is sometimes more important than content. "It will be the first meeting between the two leaders. The idea is to get to know each other," officials told this correspondent.

It is also significant because the Government of India is busy preparing for the Prime Minister's visit to Beijing in the third week of June; a visit that will only be rescheduled if there is a massive outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.

Indian officials are aware that the World Health Organisation continues to advise against non-essential travel to Beijing and, as one quipped, essential and non-essential were for the Government of India to decide.

In any case, there is still a month to go for Mr. Vajpayee's Beijing visit. But, they are aware that the Chinese side is keen that the Prime Minister comes to Beijing in June.

"The ambience, the words used, the message conveyed will be important," the Foreign Secretary, Kanwal Sibal, told presspersons on board the Prime Minister's aircraft from Munich to St. Petersburg today.

It is entirely possible that Mr. Vajpayee and Mr. Hu will talk generalities.

An attempt to bite into the nitty-gritty of the bilateral dispute between the two countries is not on the cards.

Mr. Hu, on a week-long visit to Russia, is travelling abroad for the first time as the President of his country and the general-secretary of the Communist Party. Mr. Hu also has the vastly-experienced former President, Jiang Zemin, as the head of the Central Military Commission at hand to help.

The last encounter the Prime Minister had with a Chinese leader was his meeting with the then President, Jiang Zemin, on the sidelines of a regional meeting in Almaty in 2002. Also, in 2002, the then Chinese Prime Minister, Zhu Rongji, had travelled to India.

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