M A I N   N E W S

India, China play down border row
Ashok Tuteja
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 8
In its first major high-level contact with the new Narendra Modi government, China today assured India that it would respect New Delhi’s sensitivities and concerns in the interest of bilateral ties, notwithstanding the lingering boundary dispute between the two countries.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who is visiting Delhi as the Special Envoy of President Li Jinping, held marathon talks with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj here at which they discussed all issues of significance, including the border row. The Chinese leader will hold talks with Prime Minister Modi tomorrow and formally invite him to visit China. He will also call on President Pranab Mukherjee.

Briefing reporters, MEA spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said the talks were ‘cordial, useful, productive and substantial.’ Swaraj was assisted by Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh, Indian Ambassador Ashok Kantha and other senior officials. The Chinese Foreign Minister was assisted by his close aides at the over three-hour meeting.

Wang was effusive in his praise of the Modi government. He said it had injected a new vitality into an ancient civilisation.

The Chinese leader said Beijing supported economic development of India and was ready to engage with Delhi in every sphere. The international community was closely following the developments in India following the recent Lok Sabha elections, he said. Recalling that Modi had visited China several times as the Chief Minister of Gujarat, he hoped high-level exchanges between the two countries would continue. Both Swaraj and her Chinese counterpart noted that there was possibility of high-level interactions between the two leaderships on at least half-a-dozen occasions during the remaining part of the calendar year. There was an understanding that respect of each other’s concerns was essential for both sides.

Asked if the border issue or the stapled visa issue had figured during the talks, the spokesman merely stated that all aspects of India-China ties were discussed comprehensively. “This is a productive beginning…as a Chinese saying goes ‘a journey of thousand miles begins with one step’, that one step was taken today,” Swaraj talked about increasing Chinese investments in India.

Both leaders felt that there was untapped potential for growth of economic ties. In this connection, the two sides discussed China’s proposal to set up industrial zones and industrial parks in India.