Yashwant Sinha wants India to talk to Chinese Premier from 'a position of strength'

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Yashwant Sinha on Saturday said that the UPA-II government should hold talks with the Chinese Premier Li Keqiang "from a position of strength".

Yashwant Sinha pointed out that there were many issues on which India and China can cooperate globally. He said that a major issue in India-China relation today is the huge trade imbalance. He said :" But all in all, we should talk to the Chinese Prime Minister from a position of strength and not from a position of weakness. We are a great nation. China recognises that we are a great nation. And we should keep that in mind."

Premier Li arrives in India on Sunday on his first foreign trip since assuming office. He would also visit Pakistan, Germany and Switzerland during the week-long foray.

China and India, despite both being founding members of the BRICS group of developing nations and having increasingly close economic relations, have long looked with suspicion at each other following a brief border war in 1962..

Meanwhile, another Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kiran Rijiju said, "This visit has a historical significance. We have a great opportunity as well. I have written to our Prime Minister that he should take up two issues with the Chinese premier. First they should accept the stapled visa that would be issued by the Chinese to the people of Arunachal Pradesh. First China claimed Arunachal as their part and so there was no need for the people of Arunachal to go to China. Now that they have agreed to give stapled visas, then in a way they are accepting that Arunachal is a part of India. There might be differences over the issue, but they are acknowledging it and issuing the visas. So I feel that China has softened its stand."

China is India's biggest trading partner and the two countries aim to increase their bilateral trade to $100 billion by 2015.

According to the figures released by the Chinese trade ministry, last year the bilateral trade stood at 66.47 billion dollars with India's trade deficit mounting to 28.87 billion dollars.

The widening trade imbalance skewed in favour of China remains a major worry for Indian policy makers.