The Hindu : Front Page : Beijing attaches high importance to Manmohan visit

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Friday, Jan 04, 2008
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Front Page

Beijing attaches high importance to Manmohan visit

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will visit China from January 13 to 15 at the invitation of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

In Beijing, Dr. Singh will hold talks with Mr. Wen and have separate meetings with President Hu Jintao and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress Wu Bangguo.

An External Affairs Ministry release said Dr. Singh’s visit was part of the series of high-level exchanges in the recent past, including the visits by Mr. Wen in April 2005 and Mr. Hu in November 2006. Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited China in June 2003.

PTI reports from Beijing:

China on Thursday said it attached high importance to the maiden visit of Dr. Singh and the two sides would discuss a host of issues, including finding a “fair and rational” solution to the boundary problem.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu said China hoped the visit would increase friendship between the people of the two nations, enhance mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields and promote strategic cooperative partnership in the “long term and in a healthy way.”

“We are ready to make joint efforts with India to promote strategic cooperative partnership to a new high,” she said, noting the two countries were the biggest developing nations and had the common task of development devoted to regional stability and the world at large.

“Consultations on”

Asked if any agreements would be signed during Dr. Singh’s visit, Ms. Jiang said: “On the specifics, the two sides are still holding discussions and consultations.”

On the boundary issue, she said the Special Representatives had three meetings last year and had “good, helpful consultations” on the framework. “We will make joint efforts to find a fair and rational settlement that is acceptable to both countries.” The bilateral relations had kept a “good momentum” in 2007, which saw the “year of friendship through tourism” and strengthening of cooperation in various fields.

Both India and China had maintained “smooth coordination” in international and regional affairs. Last year, the bilateral trade increased by 54 per cent year-on-year, Ms. Jiang said.

In October 2007, Congress president Sonia Gandhi visited China. She was the first foreign leader to visit Beijing a week after the Communist Party of China’s National Congress where its new leadership was unveiled.

After her high-profile meetings with Mr. Hu and Mr. Wen, both counties reached a “consensus” on upgrading bilateral relations to a strategic level that would “change Asia and the world in a profound way.”

India and China held their first-ever joint military exercise at Kunming in Yunnan province late last month.

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