Kuala Lumpur, Oct. 26: Within hours of the Indian Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, landing in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday as part of his grand plan to give an economic underpinning to the relationship with three key East Asian nations in China’s backyard while remaining careful not to upset the larger neighbour, Beijing signalled that it had no compunctions about crossing the red line yet again on the sensitive issue of issuing stapled visas to Indian nationals from Jammu and Kashmir.
In response to queries on whether the issue of stapled visas would figure during talks between the Indian and Chinese leaders, Mr Ma Zhaoxu, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, said in Beijing: “As for the Indian Kashmir visa, our policy is consistent and has stayed unchanged. Though China has friendly relations with India, its policy towards the stapled visas for residents of the state remained unchanged.”