Hu arrives in India, to meet Manmohan

New Delhi, March 28 (IANS) Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived here Wednesday on a two-day visit to participate in the BRICS summit and to hold wide-ranging bilateral talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The Chinese president is accompanied by a high-profile delegation comprising Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, State Councillor Dai Bingguo, senior ministers and business leaders.

Hu will meet Russian President Dmitry Medvedev Wednesday before participating in the BRICS summit next day.

Hu, along with the presidents of Russia, Brazil and South Africa, will attend a banquet hosted by President Pratibha Patil in the evening.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will hold bilaterals Thursday afternoon with the Chinese president that will cover various issues including bridging the trade deficit and fasttracking the new confidence-building measures.

The two leaders are expected to declare 2012 as the year of India-China friendship and unveil initiatives to bolster cultural exchanges and people-to-people contacts.

India is expected is to raise the issue of huge imbalance in bilateral trade which has exceeded $70 billion, with the surplus heavily in China's favour.

Hu will speak at the plenary session of the 4th BRICS summit Thursday where he is expected to highlight China's position on global governance, sustainable development and ways to ramp up intra-BRICS trade and investment.

This will be the last visit to India by Hu as China goes in for a leadership succession later this year. He last came to India in 2006.