India - China: Relations And Developments

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<b>PM does not break protocol for Hu</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->It was External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and not Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who went to receive China’s President Hu Jintao at the airport when he arrived in New Delhi on Monday, setting the tenor for what appears to be more ‘business-like’ exchanges than any major ‘path-breaking landmark visit’.
The first visit by a Chinese President in over a decade, since Jiang Zemin visited India in 1996, was clearly not reason enough for <b>the prime minister to break the protocol and go to the airport, as he had for three 'big ticket' visits earlier this year - for Saudi King Abdullah’s visit, for US President George W Bush’s visit and for Nepalese Prime Minister GP Koirala’s visit.</b>

But the government, aiming to remove any semblance of bilateral discord, created by statements made by the Chinese envoy to India Sun Yuxi (about all of Arunachal Pradesh being claimed by China) called Hu’s visit an "important" one -the "high watermark of the ongoing India-China Friendship year".
............<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd--><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->There is peace and tranquility along the border," a senior official said,<b> "and with the steady chipping away at differences we have managed to get Sikkim off the table and set up greater defence exchanges between the two countries."</b>
<b>India will seek greater information sharing on the flow of rivers like the Sutlej and the Brahmaputra, which originate in what India calls the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China, about which the two countries already exchange information on flood season data.</b>

There have been major concerns in recent years about China being able to control water flows into India in the absence of any comprehensive bilateral agreement on water sharing.
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