Thailand Archive

Hua Hin (Thailand), Oct 25 – Asserting that the Sino-Indian border dispute cannot be wished away, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Sunday that he and his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao had agreed to maintain ‘peace and tranquility’ on their winding and disputed frontier.

Manmohan Singh also told journalists at the end of a hectic two-day visit to Thailand that he had informed Wen that India viewed the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, whose proposed trip to Arunachal Pradesh next month has been opposed by Beijing, as an ‘honoured guest’ and ‘a religious leader’.

The prime minister said he had ‘a frank and constructive exchange of views’ with Wen both during their formal delegation-level meeting Saturday morning and at the dinner hosted by the Thai prime minister at night. He underlined that the Dalai Lama figured only at the dinner talks.

He said he discussed with Wen various issues and they agreed that these should be resolved amicably.

Differences between the two countries would be taken up by the Indian and Chinese foreign ministers when they meet in Bangalore two days later as part of a three-nation dialogue also involving Russia, he added.

‘There is a complex border question that cannot be wished away,’ Manmohan Singh, speaking candidly on a range of issues that have strained relations between the world’s two most populous countries over the past one month, sparking a war of words.

‘There are established channels to resolve issues. One doesn’t have to go to the media to exaggerate (the state of affairs).

‘Both (of us) agreed that the boundary question is a complex question. Both have an objective to maintain peace and tranquility on the border.’

The prime minister’s comments followed the Chinese military’s reported incursions into India and Beijing’s unprecedented criticism of Manmohan Singh’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh, the northeastern Indian state that Beijing claims.

Manmohan Singh said he took up the issue of China building a dam on the Brahmaputra, which has caused worries in India’s northeast as it could divert the river water and cause drought.

But he said he did not discuss the issue of China issuing visas to people from Jammu and Kashmir on separate sheets rather than on Indian passports.

‘There was a general discussion of all bilateral issues. I did not specifically raise the (visa) issue. Be in Arunachal Pradesh or Jammu and Kashmir, they are integral parts of the country.’

Pressed if the Dalai Lama, who has lived in India since 1959 in self-imposed exile, would visit Arunachal Pradesh, the prime minister replied: ‘All I can say that I explained to Wen that the Dalai Lama is our honoured guest. He is a religious leader. ‘

But he quickly added that India does not allow political activities by the Tibetan exile community.

‘I am not aware of the Dalai Lama’s (Arunachal) programme. I have explained this position to the Chinese leadership.’

He pointed out that India cracked down on Tibetans when it became clear that there could be protests against the Chinese Olympic Torch relay when it passed through New Delhi.

The prime minister again described the Maoist movement as the biggest internal security threat to India and said that New Delhi’s destiny lay in integrating itself with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Hua Hin (Thailand), Oct 25 – Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Sunday admitted that there have been delays in some Commonwealth Games projects, but said eventually it will be a ‘spectacular show’.

The Commonwealth Games 2010 will be held in New Delhi Oct 3-14.

Hua Hin (Thailand), Oct 25 – India and China have agreed to maintain ‘peace and tranquility’ on their disputed border, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Sunday.

The prime minister told reporters at the end of his two-day trip to Thailand that he had ‘frank and constructive exchange of views’ with his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao here Saturday.

Manmohan Singh said that he discussed various issues with Wen both during their bilateral talks Saturday morning and later at the dinner for visiting leaders hosted by the Thai prime minister.

He said India and China had agreed that all contentious issues should be resolved amicably.

‘(There is a) need to maintain peace and tranquility on the border pending a settlement of the border issue,’ Manmohan Singh said.

Manmohan Singh said he had told Wen that India viewed the Dalai Lama as ‘our honoured guest’ and ‘a religious leader’. But he made no comment on the Tibetan spiritual leader’s proposed trip to Arunachal Pradesh next month.

Hua Hin (Thailand), Oct 25 – India and China have agreed to maintain ‘peace and tranquility’ on their disputed border, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Sunday.

The prime minister told reporters at the end of his two-day trip to Thailand that he had ‘frank and constructive exchange of views’ with his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao here Saturday.

Hua Hin (Thailand), Oct 25 – Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Sunday urged the world to learn from the global economic crisis by keeping ‘the real economy strong and sound’.

Addressing the East Asia Summit here, the prime minister also said that the vision of Asian economic integration among member countries could lead to a broader Asian Economic Community.

‘We must learn lessons from the global economic crisis,’ Manmohan Singh told leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as well as China, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia.

‘One of these is the need to ensure coordination in our growth policies,’ he said. ‘The other is to keep the real economy strong and sound.

‘We agree with Japan that greater emphasis has to be laid on growth of domestic demand. And the third is to keep the flow of trade, technology and investment open, orderly and predictable.’

The economist turned politician, who ushered in sweeping free market reforms in India in 1991, said the evolution of the East Asia Summit process should conform to the ideals of an open, inclusive, transparent and outward looking forum.

‘We need to move forward in this direction, and exhibit the requisite political will,’ he said. ‘Economic integration among us could generate billions of dollars of additional output.

‘Our focus should be on generation of stronger domestic demand in Asian economies through investment in infrastructure, creation and strengthening of the social welfare net, skill development of our workforce and environmentally sustainable and inclusive growth.’

He added that the vision of Asian economic integration by coalescing the Free Trade Agreements among member countries ‘into an Asian Regional Trade Agreement is a pivotal step towards the integration of Asia into a common unit.

This can lead to the creation of a broader Asian Economic Community.’

Manmohan Singh reminded the leaders of the region that the world’s eyes were on Asia, which, he said, ‘can lead the global economic revival from the front’.

Pointing out that India had signed Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements with Singapore and South Korea and a Trade-in-Goods Agreement with the ASEAN, he said: ‘We are in discussions with Japan, China, Thailand and Malaysia and other countries to conclude agreements of a similar nature.’

He said India would contribute $1 million over 10 years to enlarge the activities of the Economic Research Institute of ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA).

The prime minister’s address to the East Asia Summit was his last major interaction during a hectic two-day visit he made to Thailand to take part in the seventh India-ASEAN and fourth East Asia summits.

Manmohan Singh also raised the issue of terrorism, saying there were growing threats from non-traditional sources such as piracy, transnational groups and extremist ideologies.

‘This will increasingly require a concerted and cooperative response in the coming period,’ he said. ‘We will have to pay greater attention to issues of social exclusion and regional imbalances in development.’

Hua Hin (Thailand), Oct 25 – The fourth East Asia Summit (EAS), in which the leaders of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries and their counterparts from China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand would discuss regional cooperation, opened here Sunday.

According to the official summit agenda, the discussion during the meeting will focus on the direction of future regional cooperation and capacity building measures to prepare for various global challenges that affect the region, Xinhua reported.

A possible outcome of the EAS is the Cha-am Hua Hin Statement on EAS Disaster Management, which was scheduled to be issued by the leaders after the meeting.

The statement concerning EAS Disaster Management identifies various measures that the 16 countries attending the East Asia Summit will take to address threats posed by natural disasters, which are becoming more frequent and more severe.

The leaders will also follow up on the implementation of a joint press statement by the EAS on the global economic crisis, and discuss the recommendations of the EAS workshop on trade finance held in Thailand September, and the result of the feasibility study on Comprehensive Economic Partnership in East Asia.

The EAS is part of a series of summit level meetings related to the 15th ASEAN Summit, which kicked off Oct 23.

Originally scheduled to take place in December 2008, the fourth EAS was postponed due to political unrest in Thailand. The Thai authorities later planned to host the summit in April this year, but anti-government protests again forced the cancellation of the meeting.

Hua Hin (Thailand), Oct 25 – Sri Lanka has ‘very close’ and ‘very special’ ties with China but there is unlikely to be a defence relationship between Beijing and Colombo, Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollogama has said.

Asked how he saw the China engagement going, Bogollogama told Singapore’s Straits Times newspaper Saturday: ‘It is very close and I call it very special because they have supported our economic agenda and us politically in the Security Council.’

He added: ‘China-Sri Lanka relationship is very special and a growing one.’

The minister was asked if there would ever be a Chinese naval base in the port of Hambantota that China is building in southern Sri Lanka.

‘They have not asked,’ Bogollogama said. ‘There are no such indications that have come our way. Why should we go by fiction and hypothesis on matters of importance? If they wanted to ask, they would have by now.’

Could there be a defence relationship with China?

The minister replied: ‘Not really. Because I see India is our immediate neighbor and our close friend. That also is a unique relationship. India has been very supportive of our efforts for seeking sustainable peace in Sri Lanka. We are quite pleased with the current defence make up of Sri Lanka.’

Bogotollogama said Sri Lanka was headed ‘towards the direction of greater reconciliation and healing’ following the military defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May this year.

‘We have already started refugee settlement. It is an opportune time for the Jaffna Tamil community and its friends abroad to look at Sri Lanka again. The president’s first call after the war was for the Sri Lankan community abroad to come back and be part of Sri Lankas’ integration. This is something our friends abroad should pick up and respond to.’

The minister indicated delays in settling the hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians interned in military-controlled camps in Sri Lanka’s north following the end of the war by saying they could go home only when the infrastructure in their original places of abode was ready.

‘For that we are accelerating our efforts with support from the international community. The process can be accelerated and expedited which, we believe, will be (completed) early next year.’

He said according to current estimates, some 100,000 of the estimated over 250,000 inmates in the camps would be settled by the end of this year. ‘That is a good number to initially target and realize.’

Sri Lankan authorities had earlier given the international community to understand that they needed only 180 days to settle people in the camps.

Bogollogama said there were 10,000 former LTTE cadres currently in camps and that they ‘should come out well and play a useful role in their own lives and in society’.

But he quickly added that if they had committed grave crimes, ‘that lot we can always deal with due process of law’.

Hua Hin (Thailand), Oct 25 – Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was hailed by ASEAN leaders for taking the reins of India for a second term as he met them bilaterally and collectively here.

Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and all the leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) congratulated Manmohan Singh on his re-election in May this year.

It was the first time most of them were meeting Manmohan Singh after the Lok Sabha elections.

Despite tensions in Sino-Indian ties, Wen made it a point of congratulating Manmohan Singh Saturday morning as they opened their talks at Hotel Dusit Thani, the venue of the ASEAN and East Asia summits over the weekend.

On Saturday night, an ASEAN statement said its leaders congratulated Manmohan Singh ‘on his re-election as prime minister… and expressed their conviction that his second term would further strengthen and cement the existing close partnership between ASEAN and India’.

Manmohan Singh became prime minister in his first stint in May 2004. The Congress returned to power in May this year with a larger number of MPs in the Lok Sabha and he was again chosen as prime minister.

Hua Hin (Thailand), Oct 25 – The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) wants India to play an ‘important role’ to help mitigate the negative impact of the current global financial crisis.

The appeal was made by the 10-member regional body at the seventh India-ASEAN Summit here Saturday, according to a statement put out by the ASEAN Secretariat. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh led India at the summit.

It said ASEAN leaders suggested that India, as a member of G20, ‘can play an important role in coordinating efforts between developed and emerging economies to mitigate the negative impact of the current global economic and financial crisis.

‘India can also work with ASEAN to complement the global efforts in the reform of the international financial architecture and accelerate the early recovery of the global economy,’ the statement said.

The ASEAN also welcomed India’s proposal to host an ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit in 2012 to mark 20 years of the India-ASEAN dialogue relations.

India and the ASEAN, the statement said, reaffirmed their commitment to cooperate in addressing trans-boundary issues and global challenges including terrorism and transnational crimes especially in the areas of drug trafficking, food and energy security, natural disasters and climate change.

The ASEAN leaders also appreciated the efforts made by India in promoting cooperation in the fields of traditional medicine and ayurveda, including among other things through the convening of workshops and grant of scholarships.

The statement said the ASEAN ‘took note with appreciation’ the initiatives suggested by Manmohan Singh including establishment of an India-ASEAN round table to provide policy inputs to governments on future areas of cooperation.

The prime minister had also suggested holding an ASEAN Trade and Industrial Exhibition in India, and enhancing cooperation in the farm sector with a view to meeting the challenges of food security.

ASEAN said: ‘We emphasised the need to promote connectivity in the region by completing all the missing links between South and Southeast Asia and beyond.

‘We supported India’s vision to create an ‘Art of Advantage’ for our region through further integration of sea, road and rail links.’

ASEAN leaders also appreciated India’s continued efforts in promoting people-to-people contacts and mutual understanding through visits to India of students, journalists and diplomats.

Hua Hin (Thailand), Oct 25 – Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Sunday joined East Asia leaders to discuss regional and international issues on the last day of his visit to Thailand to take part in the Asean and East Asia summits.

Manmohan Singh is a key participant in the fourth East Asia Summit that brings together the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as well as six partner countries including India, China and Japan.

After a hectic day Saturday, his first full day in this Thai resort, the Indian leader began Sunday with a bilateral meeting with his Singapore counterpart Lee Hsieng Loong.

Once the East Asia Summit concludes, he will hold talks with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dang and Indonesian President Susilo Yudhoyano Bambang.

Before departing for home Sunday night, Manmohan Singh will talk to the Indian media.

On Saturday, Manmohan Singh and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met for some 45 minutes during delegation-level discussions.

Later in the night, they were closeted at a dinner hosted by Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva for leaders of all countries attending the two summits. Details of what they discussed are not known.