Cong agrees to forgive and forget Chinese NSG act

NEW DELHI: Keen to remove uneasiness in ties before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to China next month, Congress on Wednesday agreed to erase the memory of Beijing's opposition at the NSG meeting, accepting the version offered by Chinese foreign minister Yang Jiechi.

"There is nothing in our knowledge to contradict what the Chinese foreign minister said, we believe what he said," party spokesman Shakil Ahmed told a media briefing.

He recalled party president Sonia Gandhi's visit to China to sign an MoU with the Chinese communist party — the first such step between the two parties. "We want relations to improve further, it's important that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is visiting China," Ahmed said.

The sentiment conflicted with the facts about the Chinese attempt to derail the efforts to secure the NSG waiver for the nuclear deal — something which forced the government to publicly express its displeasure.

After making clear India's displeasure over the negative Chinese role at the crucial NSG meeting, the party, however, decided not to allow it to linger.

On a visit here, Yang Jiechi sought to clarify that his country's role at the NSG meeting had been actually "constructive". Though it had become almost a convention for important visiting dignitaries to call on the Congress president, Yang Jiechi, however, did not come to 10 Janpath because of, sources said, the disinclination of the government to extend the ambit of the visit.

While sources pointed out that the Chinese foreign minister was actually made to understand the reluctance on Sonia's part, Ahmed clarified that no meeting was scheduled between the two. He, however, did not go into the finer points of whether the Chinese minister had actually sought time.