By Arun Kumar, IANS
Washington : India is opening its fourth mission in China with a new consulate in Guangzhou, formerly Canton, about 120 km northwest of Hong Kong, reflecting the burgeoning trade ties between the two Asian giants.
To be formally inaugurated when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visits in December, the new mission would look after India’s interest in eight southern and south eastern provinces with China set to overtake the US as its largest trading partner.
The opening of the new mission follows an agreement between New Delhi and Beijing for opening reciprocal consulates – India at Guangzhou and China at Kolkata. Besides its embassy in Beijing, India has two consulates in Shanghai and Hong Kong, while China has one in Mumbai.
China’s third most populous metropolis, Guangzhou has been chosen for India’s fourth mission as southern China is home to three of the country’s Special Economic Zones and the centre of China’s vast manufacturing industry.
It is seen as a manifestation of a rapid development of trade and economic relations, a marked increase in people-to-people ties and a steep rise in travel and tourism between the two countries.
Heading the new mission will be Gautam Bambawale, who has just finished a stint as minister for political affairs and the head of the political wing at the Indian embassy in Washington, DC.
A fluent speaker of Mandarin, Bambawale has already served three terms in China – in Hong Kong between 1985 and 1988; at the embassy in Beijing between 1988 and 1991; and then again in Beijing between 1998 and 2001 serving as the deputy chief of mission.
Bambawale has also served as under secretary on the China desk at the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi in 1991. An expert in India-China boundary matters, Bambawale was posted in Beijing during the path-breaking visit of then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in December 1988 that led to the rapprochement between the two nations.
An alumnus of the prestigious Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune, from where he received his master’s degree in economics, Bambawale is also a specialist in US-India affairs. He has served as the deputy secretary for the Americas in 1992-94 in New Delhi and as head of the political wing at the embassy here since July 2004.
Joining the Indian Foreign Service in 1984, Bambawale was director of the Indian Cultural Centre in Berlin between 1994 and 1998 and also served in the Prime Minister’s Office as deputy chief for the division of national security affairs, defence and international policy.