Senior Chinese leader Zhou Yong Kang met leaders of major political parties and hoped that such contacts would help improve ties between the two countries. After addressing a seminar on India-China relations, Mr. Zhou met leaders of the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Left parties.
Mr. Zhou met Congress president Sonia Gandhi and they exchanged views on fostering better party-to-party ties through frequent exchanges. Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari noted that the seminar held on Monday was in continuation of the process started last year to mark the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The first seminar was held in Beijing and was attended among others by Law Minister Veerappa Moily.
The Chinese leader, a member of the Standing Committee of the Polit Buro of the Communist Party of China, met CPI (M) general secretary Prakash Karat, CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan, Forward Bloc general secretary G. Devarajan and Revolutionary Socialist Party general secretary Debabrata Biswas besides Hari Singh Kang (CPI-M) and D. Raja (CPI).
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“We exchanged views on the relationship between the two countries and fraternal contacts,'' said Mr. Karat after the meeting. He hoped that ties would improve following the meeting between Prime Minster Manmohan Singh and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in Hanoi last week on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus six meeting. The two leaders are slated to meet again here, probably before the end of the year
Mr. Zhou interacted with BJP leaders, including party president Nitin Gadkari, and invited a party delegation to visit China. The BJP president accepted the invitation and indicated that a team might visit China before the end of the year. Mr. Gadkari said his party was involved in running governments in nine States and the delegation would especially like to see the progress made by China in the fields of infrastructure and power.