Chinas Premier Li Keqiang has pledged to build trust with India where he is meeting his counterpart Manmohan Singh after a recent flare-up in border tensions. Premier Li said the purpose of his visit was "to increase mutual trust and co-operation and face the future". "World peace... cannot be a reality without strategic co-operation between India and China," he said. The two neighbours are the worlds two most populous countries. Mondays talks are expected to involve trade ties and other bilateral issues. The Chinese leader arrived in Delhi on Sunday in the first stop of his maiden foreign trip since taking office. On his arrival, Premier Li said said his decision to choose India for his first foreign visit since taking office "indicates the great importance Beijing attaches to its relations" with Delhi. At an informal meeting on Sunday night, Mr Singh told Mr Li that a recent military standoff on the Himalaya border could affect relations between the two countries. A decades-long border dispute flared up last month after India accused Chinese troops of crossing the countries de facto frontier. The dispute over the territory in the Ladakh region has dogged the two countries since the 1950s. A BBC correspondent in Delhi says both sides, however, are keen to ensure that the border spat does not derail a general warming in relations between the neighbours and officials say trade ties are expected to dominate the talks. China is already one of Indias top trading partners and both countries have already agreed a new $100bn (£65bn) bilateral trade target for 2015. During his three-day visit in India, Premier Li is also expected to meet Indian President Pranab Mukherjee, Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi and leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha [the lower house of Indian parliament] Sushma Swaraj. He is also scheduled to address university students in Delhi and business leaders in Mumbai, Indias financial capital, before travelling on to Pakistan, Switzerland and Germany. Andrew North South Asia correspondentThe Chinese premiers visit comes just weeks after a public outcry here when India accused Chinese forces of penetrating deep inside its territory. The standoff was eventually resolved peacefully, but it has drawn renewed attention to the risks of conflict between the neighbours. More than 50 years since they fought a brief war, the two countries have still not agreed on where their border lies - and India accuses China of occupying large swathes of its territory. It was all smiles as the Indian PM, Manmohan Singh, welcomed his counterpart to a sizzling hot Delhi. With a critical media at his back - where suspicion of Chinas intentions is mixed with envy of its economic record - Mr Singh is under pressure to take a tough line. Both sides have much to lose, not least billions of dollars of trade, but few are expecting any major breakthroughs on this visit.
|