Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will address the Central School of the Communist Party of China in Beijing this morning. He will also meet former Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao before leaving for New Delhi on completion of his three-day visit to China. Our correspondent covering the Prime Minister's visit reports that India and China signed nine agreements and MoUs during Dr Singh's visit. These include Border Defence Cooperation, Management of Trans-Border Rivers and Establishment of Sister City Relationship between three Mega cities of the two countries. According to the border agreement, troops of India and China will not tail each other's patrols and during face-to-face situations both sides will exercise maximum self-restraint. It also envisages a hotline between the headquarters of the two armies, the right to ask for clarifications about the other side's troop activity and getting the troops into more friendly interactions with each other.
Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh said, both India and China agreed to promote connectivity with each other, to work together to cooperate on global issues like energy security, climate change and food security. Talking to media persons in Beijing, she said strategic communication was recognised as very important with respect to the immediate neighbourhood, in the region and globally. Responding to a question Ms Singh said that the stapled visa issue did come up during summit talks. She also said that India raised its concerns about China planning to build nuclear reactors in Pakistan.
She said the Prime Minister also held a detailed discussion with the Chinese President Xi Jinping and received assurance from him that China will address India's concern on trans-border rivers. The President also said that both countries are friends and partners. He said that China is committed to carry the mutual relationship with India to a new high.
Both the countries agreed on a vision for future development of their strategic and cooperative partnership which was declared in the joint statement issued after summit talks. In the statement both sides reaffirmed their commitment to take forward their Strategic and Cooperative Partnership for Peace and Prosperity by following the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence-Panchsheel and displaying mutual respect and sensitivity to each other’s concerns and aspirations. To promote a balanced growth of bilateral trade, the Joint Economic Group will continue to expand the bilateral economic cooperation and Working Groups will expeditiously discharge their mandates. Both the countries decided to continue to discuss with other parties to BCIM Economic Corridor (Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar).The first BCIM Joint Study Group will be meeting in December to study the specific programmes on building the Corridor. Underlining defence exchanges and military exercises as important in building greater trust and confidence, both countries decided for holding of a counter-terrorism exercise next month.
The Chinese Premier said that his country is ready to work with India to strengthen cooperation on infrastructure, especially railway construction, and to push forward the establishment of the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar economic corridor. Mr. Li Keqiang assured of addressing the trade imbalance gradually and to make two-way trade a dynamic balance. He said both countries are agreed to actively explore progress in the establishment of industrial zones in India.
