Milestone of India - Milestone in Indo - China ties.

HANOI: India and China on Friday expressed their determination to carry their relations forward through dialogue, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao instructing their officials to “work their way through” all difficult issues.

The two leaders met for 45 minutes on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit here.

Mr. Wen said he would visit India before year-end. He suggested that both sides reach consensus on some major aspects to lay the foundation for the visit.

The leaders instructed their Special Representatives to address the border issue with a “sense of urgency,” with Dr. Singh highlighting the need for both sides to be sensitive to each other's core issues. The Special Representatives were asked to meet in Beijing before next month-end and given clear directions on how the two leaders wanted them to resolve all difficult issues, National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon told journalists.

Both leaders covered the entire gamut of relations, including the issue of China issuing stapled visas to people domiciled in Jammu and Kashmir and the consequent pause in high-level defence exchanges. “In their 10th meeting in six years, they took a broad view of the strategic significance of India-China ties and expressed satisfaction at the development of relations,” Mr. Menon said.

Mr. Wen agreed with Dr. Singh's oft-repeated statement that there was enough space in the world to accommodate the growth of both countries. There was enough space for India and China to have a cooperative relationship in “all areas.”

Mr. Menon said that prior to Mr. Wen's arrival in December, India was looking forward to the opportunity provided by the visit on Sunday of Zhou Yong Kan, Member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China, to “have a much freer and broader exchange of views.”

Trade imbalance

Mr. Wen said China was “very conscious” of the trade imbalance with India and listed some of the steps taken by Beijing to address this issue. Mr. Menon pointed to regular high-level meetings on the issue and the resultant diminishing of the imbalance. “We will continue to work on it.” Bilateral trade in the first nine months of the year touched $45 billion and was on course to meet the target of $60 billion for the year.

Asked to spell out the core issues that Dr. Singh wanted both countries to be sensitive to, Mr. Menon declined to “put a gloss” on what the Prime Minister specifically said. The Prime Ministers resolved to continue working together on a range of issues, including climate change, counter-terrorism, disaster management, energy and food security on which both had “similar or identical views.”

Milestone of India - Milestone in Indo - China ties.

BEIJING: On Monday, the People’s Republic of China got its first ashram.

Located a two-hour drive away from here and nestled amid the industrial suburbs of this fast-expanding metropolis, the 165-acre retreat for yoga and meditation was opened by Sri Sri Ravishankar’s Art of Living foundation. Billing itself as the first authentic Indian retreat in a country where spirituality is on the rise, the ashram will offer a range of courses.

“There is a yearning for spiritual thought in today’s China, and this centre will provide people [with] a path to have cleaner, calmer and happier lives,” Sri Sri Ravishankar told The Hindu.

This is his first visit to China. On Monday, he interacted with religious leaders as well as officials of the Communist Party, who had given sanction for the project. The centre will accommodate 160 students at a time. The teachers, who are from all over China, had undergone training in India.

On Sunday, the centre held a ceremony with dance performances and lectures. It was attended by around 500 people. The organisers said they could have received a greater audience “of more than 3,000,” but doing so would have required a special permission from the local authorities.

Interaction

Most of the questions from the Chinese audience in an interaction with Sri Sri Ravishankar on Sunday revolved round how people could deal with the stress of modern life and preserving family values in a society that is being increasingly influenced by Western ideas.

Among those who attended was Man Hu, a middle-aged entrepreneur from Shanghai, who runs a manufacturing plant. “Like everyone else in today’s China, I am under great stress and looking for a way to manage by life in a better way and find some purpose,” she said.

Those connected with the project said they were surprised by the positive response from the authorities, who are usually careful about allowing foreign institutions, particularly those with spiritual leanings, to spread their word in China.

On Monday, Sri Sri Ravishankar met with Chen Haosu, a former vice-minister in the Propaganda Department and the president of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), which invited him to China. “India and China are naturally close, in culture, family values, music and dance,” he told Mr. Chen. “The East has a lot to offer to the world to counter the stress and ills of society that the West is facing.”

“Great expectations”

Mr. Chen said he had “great expectations” of the visit. “We hope this will bring happiness to people. Chinese people have an enthusiasm and passion for Indian culture. In the past 30 years, we have seen fast development of the Chinese economy. Now, people will also require more spiritual activities.”

Sri Sri Ravishankar said the centre would look to engage with the Chinese civil society, and even involve itself, as it has in the United States, Canada and Germany where it has centres, in environmental campaigns such as tree-planting drives. It is also in talks with the local police here to involve itself in a drug rehabilitation programme.

As Sri Sri Ravishankar left Monday’s meeting with Chinese officials, he was surprised by a gift he did not quite expect, and one that was at odds with the message of peace he was looking to bring to China — a bamboo panel with engravings from Sun Tzu’s Art of War.