Beijing Allays Fear at Delhi Talks
Anti-satellite weapon test not aimed at any country
Pallab Bhattacharya, New Delhi
China has assured India that its recent anti-satellite weapon test was not directed at any country and that it too was opposed to weaponisation of outer space.India also told China that it has constituted a team of experts to operationalize expert-level mechanism on shared trans-border rivers. Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing conveyed this to his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee during their talks here yesterday on a whole range of bilateral, regional and international issues. After the nearly two and half hour of talks between the two ministers, Indian Ambassador to China Nirupama Rao told reporters here that the Chinese side had provided a suo motu briefing to India on Bejing's satellite-killing missile test last month. She said the Chinese side stressed that Beijing was against weaponisation and militarization of outer space and that the test was conducted was of “purely technological and scientific nature”. The test had evoked sharp reaction from the United States, Australia and Japan and set off concerns in India whose leaders cautioned against induction of weapons in outer space. This was the first meeting between the foreign ministers of the two Asian giants since China had successfully launched a missile against one of its ageing weather satellites, sparking global concerns over weaponization of outer space. Mukherjee, in turn, conveyed India's principled opposition to weaponization of space and said outer space should be used as a common heritage of mankind, Rao said. He also told Li that the international community should provide a legal framework to prevent weaponization of space. The two countries agreed to set up a hotline between their foreign ministers and to liberalise visa regimes as part of initiatives to strengthen their ties. They also stressed that the two countries needed to "further intensify" their dialogue for early settlement of the boundary issue. The two countries agreed to undertake a number of other measures including having an institutionalised dialogue mechanism on strategic issues and Foreign Office consultations, hold joint working group meetings and hold discussions on counter-terrorism measures. The two countries will also open consulates in Kolkata and Guangzhou province in China this year.
| 
