China was forthcoming and supportive of international civil nuclear energy cooperation with India as the two countries affirmed their readiness to take their strategic and cooperative partnership to a new level at the ASEAN summit in Singapore on Wednesday.
Beijing's views were conveyed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao as the two leaders discussed opportunities that existed in furthering cooperation in regional and multilateral forums on global issues such as climate change and energy security.
"Premier Wen was forthcoming and supportive of international civil nuclear energy cooperation with India," External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said after the two leaders had a 30-minute meeting on the margins of the East Asia Summit.
Singh, who is having his second meeting with Wen this year, said India attaches great importance to its partnership with China and is resolved to ensure the comprehensive development of bilateral relations for mutual benefit and on the basis of mutual sensitivity to each others' concerns.
Both leaders reiterated their readiness to see a "fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable" solution to the boundary question and expressed satisfaction at the progress that is being made by the Special Representatives in this regard.
National Security Adviser M K Narayanan, Special Representative from the Indian side and his Chinese counterpart Dai Bingguo are slated to meet soon for the next round of talks.
Wen said his government was eagerly awaiting Singh's visit to China early next year. On his part, Singh said he was looking forward to his visit and expressed confidence that it would further strengthen the friendly relations between the people of the two countries.
During his day's hectic schedule, Singh also had a separate meeting with his Japanese counterpart Yasuo Fukuda. This was Singh's first meeting with the new Japanese PM.
The two leaders reiterated their commitment to strategic and global partnership and agreed on the importance of maintaining regular high level exchanges.
They also agreed on the need to expedite progress on projects that are part of the Special Economic Partnership Initiative. They reviewed the progress on the dedicated freight corridor and the Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor.
Singh and Fukuda agreed to strengthen their cooperation in regional and multilateral fora on important issues such as UN Security Council reforms and climate change, Sarna said.
The Prime Minister also accepted Fukuda's invitation to visit Japan.