Except for a commitment towards cementing economic ties, Chinese premier Wen Jiabao skipped all other issues that could have made for a robust China -India parley. The premier preferred comfortable ambiguity on the issue of stapled visas though he mooted it for discussion during his meeting with prime minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday. He remained tightlipped on the issues of Pakistan sponsored terrorism. However, he did signal a shift China's stand on a permanent seat for India in the United Nations secuirty council (UNSC), saying his country understood and supported the need for a "larger role for India in the UN."

The joint communiqué signed by two countries talked about opposition of terrorism but there was no mention of Pakistan. “They committed themselves to countering terrorism through joint efforts that include disrupting the financing of terrorism,” the communiqué said.

Though the premier pulled off a coup at the talks, upstaging India in broaching the stapled visa for J&K residents issue, he refrained from making any decisive statement on the same, saying instead that it should be discussed "in depth" by Chinese and Indian officials, according to foreign secretary Nirupama Rao. The Chinese stand on the visas has been consistently read by the Indian side as a refusal to recognise Jammu and Kashmir as a part of the Indian sovereign. There was no mention, however, of Beijing's policy in this regard, in the communiqué. Jiabao did not even mention the isssue in his speech at the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA).

However, he did hint at Chinese support for India's UNSC aspirations saying, “As a fast-growing big country with over one billion people, India should and can play an increasingly important role in international affairs. China understands and supports India’s desire to play a bigger role in the United Nations, including its security council.”

But he stopped much short of openly endorsing India's candidature like his P-5 peer US president Barack Obama did during his November visit.

A new target was set on trade front. “We should work together to hit the target of $100 billion in two-way trade by 2015,” the Chinese premier said at ICWA. He further added, “China understands India’s concern over the bilateral trade imbalance.”

“The aim is to reach economic frontier and increase channel of economic relations. What India should do is to gain access to the huge Chinese market,” Gita Gopinath, professor of economics at Harvard University told Governance Now.

Jiabao, in a meagre concession,  assured to look at New Delhi’s concern about the trans-border rivers. “I would like to assure India that all the upstream development activities by China will be based on scientific planning and study and will never harm downstream interests,” Jiabao said in reference to the course of the river Brahmaputra and its plans to construct dams upstream.  

He evaded other contentious issues in India like - Arunachal Pradesh, growing Sino-Pak nuclear cooperation.

Lastly, drawing curtains on the year-long festival of China in India, Jiabao said, “The outcome of my visit has been successful. We can say that an Asian century has arrived.”

“Overall, for China it must be a successful trip in terms of business but the political gesture was missing in the speech,” Sanjiv Kumar, China expert and research fellow at ICWA told Governance Now.

Jiabao leaves for Pakistan on Friday.