Visa row: China in damage control mode
NEW DELHI: Amid reports that an Indian Army General was denied a visa to visit China, the country's envoy Zhang Yan visited South Block on Friday afternoon to meet officials of the ministry of external affairs, sources said.
They said Zhang was holding meetings with senior officials of the ministry.
The Chinese envoy's South Block sojourn follows a media report that Lt. Gen. B S Jaswal, who heads the Northern Command, was to have visited China for a high-level exchange but was denied a visa as he had Jammu and Kashmir under his area of control.
The external affairs ministry said Jaswal's visit had not taken place "due to certain reasons".
"While we value our exchanges with China, there must be sensitivity to each others' concerns," said ministry spokesperson Vishnu Prakash.
India has cancelled defence exchanges with China after Beijing refused to allow the visit of the Indian Army's General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Northern Area Command, because he was responsible for Jammu & Kashmir, a state that China maintained was disputed.
In keeping with a practice for the past few years, the Indian defence establishment in June had began preparations for a regular high-level exchange visit to China this August by one of the top commanders of the Indian army — the northern area commander, Lt-Gen B S Jaswal.
However, Delhi was stunned when Beijing responded to his nomination by saying that it was unwilling to "welcome" Gen Jaswal because he "controlled" a disputed area, Jammu and Kashmir.
An angry New Delhi shot off a strongly worded demarche to Beijing, protesting its decision. Soon thereafter, India refused permission to two Chinese defence officials to come to India for a course at the National Defence College. A subsequent visit by Indian military officials to China was also cancelled by India.
To ensure that there was no ambiguity about the reason for its annoyance, New Delhi has since also bluntly told Beijing that the unexpected decision to block Lt-Gen Jaswal's visit to China was the reason behind India's decisions.
New Delhi found China's behaviour particularly provocative because in August 2009, Lt-Gen V K Singh, currently the Army chief and then the GOC-in-C Eastern Command, had visited China for a similar high-level exchange. If territorial sensitivity was the issue with China, then Singh's visit should have been even more problematic because, as head of the Eastern Command, he had jurisdiction over Arunachal Pradesh, a state that is claimed by China.
aint gonna happen... 
