Menon arrives in China as PM's special envoy

During the next two days, Menon is scheduled to meet Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and influential State Councillor Dai Bingguo, who is also the designated Chinese representative to discuss Sino-India border issue, officials here said.

Officials attach a great deal of significance to Menon's upcoming talks with Wen and Yang, considering that the protocol-conscious Chinese leadership prefer to meet leaders of their matching ranks.|

Equally important is the fact that Menon is visiting China as Prime Minister Singh's Special Envoy carrying with him a wider mandate to discuss a host of issues with the top Chinese leadership to set out a decisive direction for the bilateral relationship to move ahead.

Officials on both sides said that the two countries have been making conscious efforts to bring about lot of positivity to the bilateral ties since early this year, culminating in successful visit of President Pratibha Patil to China in May.

But China's plans to build two 650 MW nuclear plants for Pakistan without getting the clearance from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) appeared to have pushed New Delhi on the backfoot. China merely informed NSG last month of its plans to build the nuclear reactors after signing a USD 2.5 billion contract.

The visit of Menon, who arrived here ahead of Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari's July 6-11 tour of China and weeks after Pakistan Army Chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani's trip, is expected to provide valuable inputs on the Chinese thinking over how Beijing wants to forge closer ties with India keeping in mind New Delhi's concerns over its "all weather relationship" with Islamabad. Coinciding with Menon's visit, special troops of China and Pakistan carried out anti terrorism exercises in China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, which has a substantial Muslim population. This is the third such exercise between the two countries.

For its part, China too has its concerns, specially the curbs imposed by India on its telecom equipment following suspicions that some of the Chinese companies were connected to this country's army and the equipment contained spyware which could be used against India at a later date.

The telecom cooperation is also important for China as India is expected to provide the biggest market for its companies involving billions of dollars of revenue.For India, the Chinese equipment is regarded important as it is nearly 30 per cent cheaper than other international brands.

Chinese officials have also been voicing concern over the growing ties between the United States and India, which are viewed by Beijing as aimed at containing it. Menon, who is fluent in Mandarin and also former ambassador to China, is expected to have frank and candid discussions here, which many officials here believe could set a new direction for the Sino-India relations.

A number of other issues, including the detention of 21 diamond traders from Gujarat in China on smuggling charges, are also expected to figure in his talks here.