SunWuKong
11-08-2003, 03:39 AM
India frets as China and Pakistan embrace
By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf's three-day visit to China has concluded with the two sides signing about eight agreements. While the visit did see the usual cooing and billing that marks Sino-Pakistan interactions, Musharraf described the relationship as being "deeper than the oceans, higher than the mountains", that they failed to finalize a nuclear deal has been noted with some satisfaction by their common neighbor, India.
The agreements that were signed include a preferential trade agreement, a US$500 million loan from China to Pakistan and an extradition treaty. But more significant than what they did sign is what they did not. In the runup to Musharraf's visit, media reports indicated that a deal on Chinese assistance to the construction of a nuclear power plant in Pakistan was in the cards. "China has agreed to build a 300 megawatt civilian power plant in Pakistan," the Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesperson Masood Khan had told the Agence France Presse news agency in Islamabad. That agreement, however, did not materialize.
Musharraf's visit to Beijing comes close on the heels of a great leap forward in Sino-Indian relations. In June, Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited China. During that trip, the two Asian giants sent out unambiguous signals that they were keen to transform their troubled relations. Delhi and Beijing have since taken steps forward towards resolving their border dispute. Last month, an attempt to resolve the border question through a new political framework was made when the first round of talks between "special representatives" of the two countries took place in Delhi. Bilateral ties will touch another high next week when India and China hold joint naval exercises.
more... (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/EK08Df06.html)
By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf's three-day visit to China has concluded with the two sides signing about eight agreements. While the visit did see the usual cooing and billing that marks Sino-Pakistan interactions, Musharraf described the relationship as being "deeper than the oceans, higher than the mountains", that they failed to finalize a nuclear deal has been noted with some satisfaction by their common neighbor, India.
The agreements that were signed include a preferential trade agreement, a US$500 million loan from China to Pakistan and an extradition treaty. But more significant than what they did sign is what they did not. In the runup to Musharraf's visit, media reports indicated that a deal on Chinese assistance to the construction of a nuclear power plant in Pakistan was in the cards. "China has agreed to build a 300 megawatt civilian power plant in Pakistan," the Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesperson Masood Khan had told the Agence France Presse news agency in Islamabad. That agreement, however, did not materialize.
Musharraf's visit to Beijing comes close on the heels of a great leap forward in Sino-Indian relations. In June, Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited China. During that trip, the two Asian giants sent out unambiguous signals that they were keen to transform their troubled relations. Delhi and Beijing have since taken steps forward towards resolving their border dispute. Last month, an attempt to resolve the border question through a new political framework was made when the first round of talks between "special representatives" of the two countries took place in Delhi. Bilateral ties will touch another high next week when India and China hold joint naval exercises.
more... (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/EK08Df06.html)