Gandhi Carries Olive Branch to Beijing

Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi arrived here Monday on a visit intended to mark the end of 26 years of hostility between the world’s two most populous nations.

“I have come to renew our old friendship,” Gandhi declared in a banquet speech Monday evening. “Stable and friendly relations between India and China will determine the destiny of our region--indeed, vitally influence the course of world history.”

Gandhi’s visit is aimed at promoting bilateral contacts and paving the way for a settlement of the two countries’ Himalayan border dispute, which has poisoned their relations ever since they fought a brief border war in 1962. Each country occupies extensive tracts of high, largely barren land claimed by the other.

China Favors Status Quo

A border agreement based on the status quo has long been favored by Beijing, but public opinion in India has demanded that any settlement must transfer to India large areas now controlled by China.

Gandhi and Chinese Premier Li Peng met for several hours Monday to discuss the border and a variety of other issues. Later, at the evening banquet, both leaders struck a conciliatory tone.

“The boundary question has come to be a major problem,” Gandhi said, after first recalling the warmth of Sino-Indian friendship during the 1950s. “It touches upon the sentiments and feelings of our people. We do understand that it also touches upon sentiments and feelings in China. We must find an enduring solution to the problem, based on an understanding of each other’s point of view, which will be in our mutual interest and to the benefit of both our peoples.”

Amicable Settlement Seen

India is “confident that the boundary question will be settled amicably,” Gandhi said.

“It must be settled within a realistic time-frame,” he added. “India is prepared to proceed accordingly.”

Li, in his banquet speech, expressed similar sentiments.

“We always maintain and sincerely hope that there will be a fair and reasonable settlement of the outstanding boundary question between our two countries through friendly consultation in a spirit of mutual understanding and mutual accommodation,” he said.

Gandhi’s visit to Beijing is the first by an Indian prime minister since his grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, came in 1954. The late Premier Chou En-lai visited New Delhi in 1960.

An Indian official, who briefed reporters on condition that he not be identified by name, said that in Monday’s talks, “what we have agreed to is to expand our bilateral relations and build an atmosphere which will be conducive to settling all our outstanding issues, including the border issue.”

Increased ties are expected in “science and technology, culture, agriculture, people-to-people contacts--the whole spectrum,” the official said.

In his speech, Gandhi recalled the glories of the two countries’ pasts and called for them now to work together in building a new world order.

“It was in quest of our treasures, of our fabled material wealth, of our silks and our spices, of our textiles and our technologies, that the West sought out Asia,” Gandhi said. “The voyages of discovery that began with Marco Polo and Vasco da Gama ended, however, in the inequity of imperialism. In different ways, each of us succumbed to the depredations of the European powers. Then, each of us, in our separate ways, rose once again to freedom and independence.”

Gandhi cited the “period of estrangement” caused by the border dispute but added that “it is now time to look beyond the past.”

“Between us, we represent a third of humanity,” he said. “There is much we can do together.”