Less than 72 hours before Prime Minister Manomhan Singh leaves for an official visit to Russia and China, there is no word on whether the Union Cabinet has given its approval to a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on ‘simplifying visa procedures between India and China’, which was to be taken up by the Cabinet on Thursday.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is seeking the Cabinet’s approval for the MoU, as liberalisation of the visa regime will help in not only promoting economic and commercial relations but also people-to-people links between the two countries.

The proposal before the Cabinet was to update an MoU that India and China had signed in 2003, as relations between the two neighbours had witnessed a change.

For instance, during 2012-13, China was India’s largest trading partner, just behind the United Arab Emirates.

Among the measures for which the MEA was seeking Cabinet approval are extending the validity of a business visa to people from China to one-year from the existing six months and allowing multiple entry for holders of such visas.

Another proposal was for allowing Chinese nationals holding such visas to stay in India for up to six months from the current restriction of 90 days.

The MoU also seeks to set a time frame of 30 days for the Ministry of Home Affairs to process employment and project visas for Chinese nationals, provided those applying for such visas meet all the laid down criteria.

At present, there is no time line for processing such categories of visas.

With the Home Ministry looking to include Chinese nationals among the list of nations whose citizens are given visa-on-arrival, the MEA had sought the Cabinet’s nod for doing away with the two-month gap between such visits.

> ashwini.phadnis@thehindu.co.in

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