The Indian Prime Minister and the Chinese President also stressed the need for an early settlement of the boundary dispute.
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Hu Jintao wrapped up over three and a half hours of talks with a joint declaration aimed at “deepening and broadening” all round ties between India and China.
The two leaders stressed the need for an early settlement of the boundary dispute. The dates for the next round of border talks between the special representatives will be announced shortly. Talks of opening up more border trade posts are also on.
With no big ticket items on the table, the thrust was on expanding trade and investments and hiking bilateral trade up to $ 40 billion by 2010. “President Hu and I have agreed that comprehensive economic and commercial engagement between India and China will receive our urgent and particular attention,” Dr Singh told reporters after the meeting. It was an efficient soulless visit between two countries, not comfortable yet with each other. The body language between President Hu and PM Singh remained stiff, despite the fact that the two have met at least five times in the last eighteen months.
Aware of the speculations about growing rivalry between India and China, the two rising Asian powers, the Prime Minister said: “There is enough space for the two countries to develop together in mutually supportive manner while remaining sensitive to each other’s concerns and aspirations.….” The importance of maintaining good relations was emphasised again and again.
“President Hu and I have agreed that the positive development of India-China relations in recent years must be made irreversible,” the Prime Minister said. “Cooperation in the field of civilian nuclear energy will be promoted.” Significantly, India and China have agreed in principle on civil nuclear co-operation, though the details have not yet been worked out and much will depend on how the India-US nuclear agreement finally shapes up. This understanding will also help New Delhi to negotiate with the Nuclear Suppliers Group, of which China is a member. “We had a conversation but we have not directly asked China about supporting us in the NSG,” foreign secretary Shivshankar Menon, told reporters at a briefing afterwards. Menon said it was too early for getting any commitment on this. The two countries decided to upgrade bilateral ties to a “qualitatively new level” and imbue it with “global significance” by holding regular summit-level meetings.
“China and India are both major developing countries and our relationship has global significance,” President Hu said in a short statement. “We are very satisfied with the visit, the quality of the talks and the outcome. Our attempt has been to add depth to the strategic partnership and take it forward,” Menon said, summing up the visit.
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