Left in mind, Sonia will head for China

Trip likely in October, may precede PM’s scheduled visit

NEW DELHI: Congress president Sonia Gandhi is likely to visit China in October. Though the exact dates have not yet been worked out, indications are that it will be after the Chinese Communist Party ends its four-day party congress beginning on October 15 in Beijing. This means her trip may be scheduled towards the end of October.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was also scheduled to visit China later this year, perhaps around November or December. But with Sonia’s planned visit to China, it may get pushed back, probably to early next year.

Gandhi’s visit at this juncture is significant and is clearly a signal not just to the Chinese but to the domestic audience, particularly the UPA’s Left allies, that the Congress party continues to regard good relations with China as an important element of its foreign policy.

The political debate since the signing of the Indo-US nuclear deal, especially after the text of the bilateral agreement became public, has centred around the charge that the UPA government is eager to go along with Washington to contain Beijing’s growing military and economic clout in Asia.

The Left and its supporters allege that Manmohan Singh is abandoning India’s traditional non-aligned foreign policy and becoming a part of the US-led alliance in Asia. Japan and Australia are the other two allies of Washington, and relations with both countries are showing a dramatic

improvement. In fact, when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe spoke at the joint session of Parliament last month, he talked of the “arc of freedom and democracy”, stretching from the US to Japan, Australia and India.

It was Rajiv Gandhi who first broke the ice with China when he made a landmark visit to repair ties in 1988. Rajiv Gandhi’s meeting with the legendary Deng Xiaoping was reportedly very warm and the two shared a personal chemistry. It was the first visit by a ruling prime minister to Beijing after the border war of 1962 that put relations into deep freeze. Since then India and China have come a long way.

Given that the Chinese don’t forget easily, Sonia will have a decided personal advantage in presenting India’s case.

She is expected to explain India’s position and reassure the Chinese leadership that New Delhi is not ganging up against Beijing.

China has been suspicious of India’s recent naval exercises with Washington and its allies — Australia, Singapore and Japan.