MAMALLAPURAM: Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in India on Friday for meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a time of tensions over Beijing’s support for Pakistan in opposing India’s downgrading of Kashmir’s semi-autonomy and continuing restrictions on the disputed region.
Xi was greeted at the Chennai airport by Tamil Nadu state Gov. Patwarilal Purohit as a cultural group beat drums and blew horns.
India’s foreign ministry said Xi and Modi will meet in the seaside temple town of Mamallapuram later Friday and Saturday.
Their one-to-one meeting in Wuhan in China in April last year also was preceded by tensions caused by a 10-week standoff between their armed forces on the Bhutan border.
Mamallapuram is decorated with arches studded with fruits and green vegetables. Hundreds of young children in traditional dress carrying posters with photographs of Xi and Modi waited for hours to greet the Chinese leader.
The town was under tight surveillance, with thousands of security personnel. Mamallapuram is 55 kilometers (35 miles) south of Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu state.
China claims some 90,000 square kilometers (35,000 square miles) of territory in India’s northeast, while India says China occupies 38,000 square kilometers (15,000 square miles) of its territory on the Aksai Chin Plateau in the western Himalayas. Officials have met at least 20 times to discuss the competing border claims without making significant progress.
The two countries fought a border war in 1962.
India also is concerned about China’s moves to build strategic and economic ties with its neighbors, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and the Maldives.
Tensions in Kashmir, which is divided between Pakistan and India but claimed by both, have escalated since August, when India downgraded the semi-autonomy of Indian-administered Kashmir and imposed a security and communications lockdown.
China supported Pakistan in raising India’s actions at the UN General Assembly meeting in New York. China said India should not act unilaterally in Kashmir, a portion of which China also controls.
Xi arrived two days after hosting Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan in Beijing.
India says Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India. “China is well aware of our position. It is not for other countries to comment on the internal affairs of India,” India’s External Affairs Ministry said in a statement Wednesday.
Lalit Mansingh, a former Indian ambassador to the United States, said he expected an overview of relations by the two leaders and “instructions on how the relationship should proceed.”
He said the diplomatic damage the Chinese inflicted over India’s action in Kashmir has been done. “This is not going to be undone. India has stuck to its position and received international support,” he said.
China for its part resents India’s hosting of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in 1959 and took refuge in India.
The Tibetan Youth Congress in a statement on Friday urged Prime Minister Modi to take up the Tibetan issue with Xi during the summit. “TYC condemns the Communist government of China and its president as long as the Communist Party continues to suppress the struggle of the Tibetan people,” it said.
China says Tibet has been part of its territory for centuries, although many Tibetans say they were essentially independent for most of that time. Communist troops took control of the region in 1950 after a brief military struggle.
Referring to India’s support for China’s position on Tibet, Mansingh said that India backs China’s territorial integrity. “China will not keep on challenging our territorial integrity. Otherwise we will have to have to take a different view on the issue,” he said.
China’s president in India for summit amid Kashmir tensions
China’s president in India for summit amid Kashmir tensions
- Xi was greeted at the Chennai airport by Tamil Nadu state Gov. as a cultural group beat drums and blew horns
- India’s foreign ministry said Xi and Modi will meet in the seaside temple town of Mamallapuram later Friday and Saturday
France PM edges closer to forcing budget through without a vote
- Lecornu managed to get a bill on social security spending approved by year end
- The center-right government said late on Thursday it would be “impossible to adopt a budget by a vote“
PARIS: French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu on Friday inched closer to forcing his budget bill through parliament without a vote while desperately seeking a way to avoid being toppled by parliament as a result.
The eurozone’s second-largest economy has been bogged down in political crisis since President Emmanuel Macron called a snap poll in 2024, in which he lost his parliamentary majority.
In a bid to survive being toppled by parliament like his two predecessors, Lecornu last year pledged to seek parliament approval for a 2026 austerity budget — and not ram it through without a vote.
He managed to get a bill on social security spending approved by year end but lawmakers have failed to reach a compromise on state expenses.
The center-right government said late on Thursday it would be “impossible to adopt a budget by a vote” and that it had given itself until Tuesday to examine two alternative options.
One is to use a constitutional power under “Article 49.3” to push the legislation through parliament without a vote, as for previous budgets.
That can trigger a no-confidence vote, which could topple the government and its spending bill with it.
The other option is for the first time to issue a decree that forces the budget directly into law.
That too could spark a no-confidence vote, but the budget would remain even if the cabinet was ousted.
- Appealling to Socialists -
Lecornu appeared on Friday to be working on concessions to secure the backing of the Socialists, a key swing group in parliament, to survive any motion to topple him.
The prime minister would be “making one-euro university meals available to all students” as part of the final budget bill, an adviser said, evoking a measure the Socialists had requested.
The party had in 2024 put forward a bill for all students to pay just one euro ($1.16) for a meal, not just some with scholarships or within lower income brackets. Other students now pay 3.30 euros.
A poll of around 800 people that year found that a third of students at times skipped a meal “for lack of money.”
Lecornu, who has warned that kicking him out would spark early elections, defended the “responsible” budget while announcing further social benefits in a televised speech later Friday.
An additional 400 million euros would go toward social housing providers and low-income earners would see a top-up benefit increased by an average of 50 euros per month, he said while assuring there would be “no increase in taxes on households.”
Existing tax breaks to pensioners would also be preserved, along with student grants, he said.
Lawmakers from across the political spectrum have emerged exasperated after months of back and forth, and are looking for a swift resolution.
“I’m tired of having the same debate over and over again,” said right-wing Republicans lawmaker Marie-Christine Dalloz.
“I’m really looking forward to the end of this episode.”
Greens member of parliament Steevy Gustave said he felt like a “robot” repeating the same thing every day.
“If only there had been results, some compromises — but no,” he said.
