New Delhi, May 20 – Special representatives of India and China will meet soon to discuss their disputed border where Chinese incursion sparked tensions recently, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Monday.
Speaking to the media jointly with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Manmohan Singh said that while India and China have had differences, relations had been built steadily in the more recent times.
He said both countries desired peace and tranquility on their border.
“We also took stock of the recent incident in the western sector when the existing (border) mechanism proved its worth,” he said.
He said India and China had asked their special representatives to meet soon and take measures needed to maintain peace on the border.
Li arrived here on Sunday on a three-day visit, his first foreign trip since taking power in March. Li and Manmohan Singh met on Sunday evening.
Manmohan Singh said he “sincerely appreciated” Li’s decision to reach out to him on the first day of his office and for choosing New Delhi on his very first visit abroad.
“Premier Li and I have had a wide-ranging and candid discussion covering all matters of mutual interest and concern.
“I am delighted that there are so many areas of convergence and on which there is a great deal of meeting of minds.
“Most importantly we agreed that the relationship between our countries is of growing significance and essential for our peace development and sustained economic growth as well as stability in the region and the world.”
The prime minister said he reiterated to Li India’s concerns about China’s decision to build dams on the upper reaches of the Brahmhaputra river in Tibet.
He said it would be useful to collaborate on the two countries’ shared Himalayan system.
He said he told Li “that the rise of China and India is good for the world and that the world has enough space to accommodate both”.
He said expressed concern about the trade deficit between the two countries and invited Chinese cooperation in India’s infrastructure and manufacturing sectors.
India and China are strategic partners and good friends: Li
India and China are “strategic partners and good friends” that could speak to each other with candour, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said on Monday while stressing on discussions between the two on the border issue and river waters.
Addressing the media alongside Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the visiting premier said the two countries had worked to “maintain tranquillity and peace in the border areas”.
Describing the border question as one “left over by history”, he said both sides believed that “we need to improve border mechanisms… make them more efficient” as well as “appropriately manage and resolve our differences”.
Discussing the issue of river waters, he said China had in recent years shared “hydrologial information” with India.
Li, who arrived in India on Sunday, said the important outcome of his visit was that the two leaders had reached “strategic consensus”.
China and India, he said in his statement to the media, had a “combined population that exceed one third of humanity”.
Their “amicable relationship”, he said, was the new engine for the world economy.
“Since we are strategic partners and good friends, we can speak with candour,” he said, adding that they did not deny there were problems.
INDIA TODAY
