By IANS
New Delhi : Chinese envoy to India Sun Yuxi met Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Rajnath Singh Monday as part of his customary farewell calls on political leaders.
“I came to bid my farewell. During my stay in India, I had very good relations with the BJP. I also recall a very successful visit by (then prime minister) Atal Bihari Vajpayee,” the Chinese envoy said.
“It was a courtesy call,” said a BJP functionary here.
India’s ties with China saw an upswing during the tenure of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The two countries decided to appoint special representatives to resolve their decades old border row during Vajpayee’s landmark visit to China in 2003.
The Chinese envoy earlier this week met Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who is also the chairperson of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), and discussed an entire gamut of India-China relations, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Beijing early next year.
Gandhi visited China in a landmark visit early this month that reinforced and cemented further the growing strategic and business ties between the two sides.
“The ambassador will also be meeting Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon. This is his last week in Delhi,” a source in the Chinese embassy told IANS.
Although his successor has not been named yet, Sun is likely to be succeeded by Zhang Yan, a seasoned Chinese diplomat who has served as ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, a reliable source told IANS.