‘Nobel ceremony not related to India-China ties’

BRUSSELS - India Thursday said it will attend the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony for dissident Chinese Liu Xiabo despite a request from Beijing to stay away from it as the issue was not related to their bilateral ties.

“As far as the Nobel ceremony, we do not see it as a bilateral issue,” an official source said in the Belgian capital, where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived with an Indian delegation for talks with the European Union.

The source said that India will attend the ceremony as “we have been doing so in the past”.