Manmohan gets another China invite

Another visit to China is on the cards for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh this...

Another visit to China is on the cards for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh this year with Beijing extending an invitation to New Delhi to attend the seventh ASEM (Asia-Europe Meeting) summit in October. This is the first time that India has been invited into this grouping.

It was in the last ASEM Summit at Helsinki that a decision was taken to induct India, Mongolia and Pakistan into the grouping. As a result, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee even participated at the Foreign Minister-level consultations of the group at Hamburg last May.

The ASEM has over

40 members with all countries from the European Union and ASEAN part of the dialogue plus China, Korea and Japan. India had been pursuing membership of this grouping which finally fructified at the Helsinki Summit.

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It’s learnt that Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao personally invited Singh when the latter visited Beijing last month. India, however, is still to confirm PM’s presence at the Summit which is slated for October 24-25 in Beijing. China, sources said, is attaching a lot of significance to this Summit and views it as a way to emphasise its influence in Asia.

In the build up to the event, Wen even sought to map out China’s vision for the grouping. The broad contours of China’s proposals are:

• To expand dialogue and cooperation

• To increase its influence on international issues

• To respect the diversity of cultural traditions, social systems and development models

• To push forward substantial economic cooperation and boost the steady expansion of world economy

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• To enhance communication with outside world and keep the openness of the ASEM mechanism.

Set up about a decade ago, the ASEM has evolved more as a forum to endorse institutionalised cultural engagement and improve people-to-people contact. However, China is now looking to focus on the political content of the grouping and make it a platform for “strategic dialogue” between Asia and Europe, particularly to have an influence on issues of international concern.

China was quite upset about initial meetings between officials of India, Japan, Australia and the US to consider starting a quadrangular dialogue. While this idea is now on backburner after the change of Government in Canberra and political developments in Tokyo, Beijing now feels there is room to expand ASEM’s strategic orientation.

India, on its part, has been trying to get involved in pan-Asia networks and looking to shed its initial cautious approach. In this context, Singh’s presence at the East Asia Summit was crucial and now there is hope for him to make it to the ASEM meeting.