China welcomes Dr Singh's remarks on bilateral ties

China on Tuesday welcomed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's recent remarks that relations between New Delhi and Beijing are quite good and that he was convinced that Chinese leadership was committed for peaceful resolution of disputes.

"We have taken note of the statement by Prime Minister Singh. As important neighbours to each other, China and India have maintained sound momentum in the bilateral relationship", Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Jiang Yu told a media briefing in Beijing reacting to Singh's comments. She said China is ready to work with India to enhance "China-India strategic partnership".

"As for the border issue left over from history, the two sides have been seeking a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable solution through friendly consultations", she said.

"Pending a final solution, the two sides are committed to maintaining peace and tranquility in border areas," she said.

On October 20, Singh while commenting on India-China ties blamed the media for playing up differences on the border issues, while the overall relations between the two were quite good.

"Despite the persistence of the border problem, both countries have agreed that peace and tranquility should be maintained along the border. Therefore, by and large, sometimes something appears in the newspapers in our country, something appears in the newspapers in China, that I think invites comments, but overall our relations are quite good," prime minister had said.

Dr Singh said he had good working relations with Chinese President Hu Jintao and his counterpart Wen Jiabao and he was convinced that the top leadership of China wanted peaceful resolution of all problems between the two nations.

Positive comments by both sides came as the two countries geared up for the next round of special representative talks to resolve the border dispute to be held in New Delhi. The talks will be held between National Security Advisor, Shivshankar Menon and top Chinese diplomat Dai Bingguo. The two sides have so far held 14 rounds of talks.

After the last round talks in Beijing Menon said the sides made steady progress. India asserts that the dispute covered about 4000 km, while China claims that it confined to around 2000 km, confining to the area of Arunachal Pradesh, which it claims as southern Tibet.