OBOR standoff: India, China holding wide range of bilateral meetings and cultural events

Amid the standoff over the Belt and Road Forum, India and China are holding a wide range of bilateral meetings and cultural events. A delegation of Indian IT firms led by the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) will begin a week-long visit to China starting from Monday.

The delegation comprises a number of Indian companies with proven capabilities in areas like Industry 4.0, Internet of Things (IoT) and Data Analytics.

The purpose of the visit is to realise the existing complementarities between India’s IT prowess and China’s manufacturing sector and explore the possibilities for companies from the two countries to work together to co-create and develop world-class products for the global market, a statement from the Indian Embassy here said.

India is also holding a two-week long ‘Colours of India’ festival in Beijing and Nanjing to showcase a unique blend of Indian performing arts, Bollywood movies and photography exhibition.

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As part of the event, a gala show was today held here that included Charishnu, a dance and music presentation choreographed by Bharatnatyam exponent Leela Samson.

The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) has deputed a delegation of 65 artists for the festival.

The festival comprises of photo exhibition titled Buddhist Heritage of India, Indian film festival with screening of five popular movies and cultural performance by Indian artists.

The India-China cultural events will be followed by International Yoga Day celebrations in the country on June 21.

The Indian Consulate of Shanghai has begun curtain raiser events involving hundreds of Yoga enthusiasts in Wuyi county of Zhejiang province.

Also several ministerial meetings have been planned for the preparations of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) Summit.These events, which were planned earlier, are now being held in the backdrop of differences between the two countries over USD 50 billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which is part of the China’s mega Belt and Road initiative.

India skipped the Belt and Road Forum (BRF) held here on May 14-15 due to its sovereignty concerns over the CPEC which passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). 

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