Foreign and Military Affairs

Leaders urge tranquility in China-India borders

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-12-17 06:58

NEW DELHI - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh on Thursday urged both sides to jointly safeguard peace and tranquility in the border areas, and to maintain cooperation in various fields.

During their meeting in the Indian capital, Wen and Singh agreed to continue making use of the meeting mechanism between special representatives in border issues, and to seek fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable solutions to the issues through negotiations.

The two sides should work jointly to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas before the issues are fully resolved, the leaders agreed.

Both sides, meanwhile, decided to establish a strategic economic dialogue mechanism and a China-India CEO's forum, and to set a new bilateral trade target of $100 billion by 2015.

During the meeting, the Chinese side said it will increase import from India and facilitate the access of India's IT products, pharmaceuticals and agriculture products to the Chinese market.

India welcomed Chinese enterprises' participation in India's transportation infrastructure construction.

The two countries declared that the year of 2011 will be the "Year of China-India Exchange," during which each side will invite 500 youth from the other side for a visit. A variety of activities will be held so as to help deepen exchanges and cooperation in the media and education fields and promote mutual understanding of the two countries and carry on their ever-lasting friendship.

The two sides agreed that, as the world's two biggest developing nations, China and India share wide-ranging common interests in international affairs, and the two countries will strengthen coordination and cooperation in important international organizations, such as the United Nations, and mechanisms like the Group of 20 and the BRIC nations, which also include Brazil and Russia.

Both sides said they hold similar stances on the issue of climate change and have maintained fine communication and coordination in this regard, and vowed joint efforts to safeguard their common interests and push forward the process of international cooperation on climate change.

During the talks, Singh said that the Tibet Autonomous Region is a part of the Chinese territory, and that the Indian government does not allow anyone to carry out anti-Chinese activities on its land.

Premier Wen expressed his appreciation for India's stand and hoped that the Indian side will adhere to the correct position on this issue.

Wen said that, for long, out of friendship with India and humanitarian concerns, China has overcome difficulties to provide India with documents and materials on cross-border water and rivers which are necessary for India in times of emergency.

Wen said China will continue to do so. Singh, on his part, expressed his gratitude for that.

During their meeting, the two leaders also exchanged views on regional situations.

After their talks, both leaders witnessed the signing of a number of cooperation agreements by both sides in the fields of economy, culture, environmental protection and media. The two sides also issued a joint communique.

Wen arrived here Wednesday for a three-day official visit at the invitation of Singh.