The Hindu : Front Page : Hu for far-sighted perspective in China-India relations

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Sunday, Oct 26, 2008
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Hu for far-sighted perspective in China-India relations

Manmohan meets Chinese President in Beijing on sidelines of ASEM

— Photo: AFP

cementing ties: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with Chinese President Hu Jintao during their meeting in Beijing on Saturday.

BEIJING: Chinese President Hu Jintao told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday that the two most populous countries should take bilateral ties forward with a far-sighted, strategic and long-term perspective, and properly handle each other’s concerns.

China and India had maintained sound relations and economic cooperation and collaborated in international affairs, Mr. Hu said at a meeting with Dr. Singh on the sidelines of the just-concluded 7th Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) here. “Both China and India are major developing nations in Asia, and developing good neighbourly relations had long been the Chinese government’s consistent policy,” he said.

Common task

Mr. Hu said China and India were populous countries facing the common task of improving their economies and people’s living standards, and they shared common interests in coping with the financial crisis, climate change, energy resources and food security. China would collaborate with India in international and regional issues in the interests of the two countries and developing nations, he said.

Strategic partnership

Dr. Singh said India would continuously enhance strategic and cooperative partnership with China in accordance with a declaration signed in 2006. The two countries also agreed to join hands to deal with the financial crisis.

Dr. Singh’s meeting with Mr. Hu, also General Secretary of the ruling Communist Party of China, was the second high-level contact between the leaderships of India and China in a month.

Dr. Singh earlier had a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao on September 24 on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly session in New York.

New Delhi acknowledges that the boundary problem is “complex” and cannot be resolved overnight. “There is no simple technical fix to this problem,” said Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon before the meeting of the two leaders.

“Development only with peace”

Addressing ASEM, Dr. Singh sought strengthening of global cooperation to combat terrorism. There could not be sustainable development, a major challenge faced by the world, without peace.

“Without peace there can be no sustainable development. Terrorism, extremism and intolerance threaten our social cohesion,” Dr. Singh said.

“We need to continuously strengthen international cooperation to combat terrorism. We must bring perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of terrorism to justice,” he said at the concluding day of the summit. — Xinhua, PTI

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