NEWS

PM meets Hu Jintao in Beijing

By Anil K Joseph in Beijing
October 25, 2008 14:44 IST

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday met Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing to review the entire gamut of bilateral ties and find ways to move forward on pending issues, including the vexed boundary question.

Dr Singh, who arrived in Beijing on Thursday after a three-day visit to Japan, met Hu on the sidelines of the seventh Asia-Europe meeting summit.

The prime minister's meeting with Hu, also general secretary of the ruling Communist Party of China, was the second high-level contact between the leadership of India and China in a month.

Dr Singh earlier had a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao on September 24 on the margins of the UN General Assembly session in New York.

New Delhi acknowledges that the boundary problem is "complex" and cannot be resolved overnight. "There is no simple technical fix to this problem," says Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon.

The prime minister may use the occasion to clear doubts in Beijing over growing Indo-Japanese ties after Dr Singh signed a landmark security pact with his Japanese counterpart Taro Aso.

"I have explained on several occasions both in India as well as in China and abroad that I sincerely believe that there is no competition between India and China," Dr Singh had said in Tokyo on Wednesday.

Dr Singh and Hu are also expected to discuss cooperation in a multilateral fora on challenges posed by global economic turmoil, energy security and climate change.

Anil K Joseph in Beijing
Source: PTI
© Copyright 2024 PTI. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of PTI content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent.

Recommended by Rediff.com

NEXT ARTICLE

NewsBusinessMoviesSportsCricketGet AheadDiscussionLabsMyPageVideosCompany Email