Visa delay stalls Chinese delegations’ visits
visit to India of at least five delegations from China is yet to go ahead because of a delay in issuance of visas, people familiar with developments said on Tuesday.
The delegations, mostly from provincial governments across China and including one from various universities, had been expected to travel to the country in November and there is now a question mark on whether the visits will happen this year, the people cited above said.
The visits were being organised as part of enhanced contacts that had been proposed following meetings of the IndiaChina high-level mechanism on cultural and people-to-people exchanges.
The body, co-chaired by the foreign ministers of the two countries, has met twice since December last year.
“As of now, there is no clarity on when the visas will be issued and whether the visits, which are already delayed, will happen within this year,” said a person on condition of anonymity.
The reason for the delay in the issue of visas for the delegations could not immediately be ascertained. There was no word on the development from Indian officials.
A second person, who too declined to be named, said there was a set procedure for issuing visas to members of visiting foreign delegations and this was being followed in these cases too.
The people cited above clarified that a proposed visit of a Chinese business delegation to participate in the China-India Forum to be held in New Delhi during November 13-14 had been put off because of technical reasons, and not because of denial of visas.
The eighth edition of the business meet was being jointly organised by FICCI and the International Business Linkage Forum (IBLF). A message posted on IBLF’s website said: “Due to unforeseen circumstances we have been advised to postpone the Forum for the time being. We apologise for the inconvenience caused. We hope to announce the new event date soon.” It did not give further details.
A Chinese delegation of about 70 members had been expected to join the event.