India-China friends forever: Wen Jiabao

NEW DELHI - “India-China friends forever” was the message sent out by Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao when he visited the Tagore International School here Wednesday to interact with its students.

Wen who arrived here Wednesday on a three-day visit, interacted with nearly 50 students of of the school during a talk on Mandarin, Chinese culture and calligraphy.

Addressing the premier affectionately as “grandpa Wen” Student Body President Abhishek Sanskritik said: “The premier was very positive about the friendship between the two countries.”

He also said that Wen took questions from students on various subjects concerning India and China, including what China thought of India.

His answers brought across the message of friendship between the two emerging powers India and China, he said.

School principal Madhulika Sen said the the experience was very educative.

We did not want it to be political. He put all the students at ease while interacting with them… He spoke more about Tagore and how China too had been Tagore’s home, Sen said.

Shweta Sument, a student at the school, was chirpy about the session.

She said: The perception of China as a threat to India needs to change. The visit is going to strengthen the ‘Hindi-Chini bhai bhai’ bond.”

The school has been running exchange programmes, calligraphy and yoga classes through video-conferencing under a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Jinyuan School, ranked amongst the best language schools in Shanghai, Sen said.

The school was chosen for Wen’s visit due to the enduring Chinese fascination with Nobel laureate poet-philosopher Rabindranath Tagore.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has already announced plans to introduce Mandarin Chinese as a foreign language in its 11,000 affiliated schools from Class 6 onwards next year.