By IANS
New Delhi : Close on the heels of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to China, a multiparty parliamentary delegation from India has returned after a visit to three Chinese cities – Beijing, Xiang and Shanghai.
The six-member team was led by eminent Gandhian and Rajya Sabha member Nirmala Deshpande.
The delegation met senior Chinese Communist Party and government officials, leaders of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and scholars from leading think tanks, a statement issued here from Deshpande’s office said.
“It was a very friendly and fruitful visit. We felt that that we were in a friendly country. People told us that we had been friends for more than 2000 years. Many of them are interested to visit India, particularly places like Bodhgaya and Nalanda,” Deshpande told IANS.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader (BJP) Shahnawaz Hussain, Communist Party of India’s (CPI) Prabodh Panda, Telugu Desam Party’s R.C.S. Reddy and Congress parliamentarians Sudarshan Natchiappan and Shantaram Naik were the other members of the delegation.
The visit was organised with the assistance of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
During the trip, the MPs held talks with Jia Zhijie, chairman of the China India Parliamentary Friendship Group on ways to accelerate inter-parliamentary exchanges.
The team also met with the vice chairmen of the foreign affairs committee and the standing committee of the NPC and the head of the international department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CCCPC).
The delegation also held talks with many provincial leaders and scholars in Shanghai.