India, China stress on enhancing relations

IANS/New Delhi

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi shakes hands with External Affairs Minister S M Krishna prior to a meeting in New Delhi yesterday

In key trust building steps ahead of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit to New Delhi later this month, India and China yesterday decided to set up a maritime dialogue and agreed to hold the maiden round of the newly-minted border mechanism in Beijing next week.The two countries also decided to intensify counter-terror co-operation and collaboration on a host of global issues including the international financial crisis and climate change. External Affairs Minister S M Krishna held delegation-level talks with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi during which both agreed to sustain the momentum in bilateral ties despite occasional hiccups.They reviewed the entire bilateral relations and discussed issues that will figure in talks between the Chinese president and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the margins of the BRICS summit here on March 29.This will be the last visit of Hu to India before China goes in for a generational leadership succession expected this autumn. Hu last came in 2006.Despite the recent verbal sparring triggered by Beijing’s objections to Defence Minister A K Antony’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh, the two foreign ministers stressed on enhancing relations and building trust.The breakthrough came when the two sides agreed to launch a maritime dialogue, an important step in view of the growing profile of Indian and Chinese navies and the oft-touted scenarios of rivalry in the resource-rich, strategic Indian Ocean between the two maritime powers. “India and China will set up a maritime dialogue. It is expected to be led by India’s external affairs ministry and China’s foreign ministry,” Syed Akbaruddin, spokesman of India’s foreign ministry, told reporters here.