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| Sunday, 10 April 2005 |
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China, India eye for co-operation NEW DELHI, April 9 (Reuters) - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao aims to make progress on resolving a longstanding border dispute with India as well as building closer trade ties when he visits New Delhi next week, as the Asian giants draw closer together. Relations between the world's most populous countries are warmer than ever before, with both emerging as economic and diplomatic heavyweights on the world stage and discovering the language of cooperation rather than competition. The most obvious manifestation could be an agreement on the "guiding principles" to settle a four-decades old dispute over their 3,500 km (2,200-mile) Himalayan border, over which they fought a brief but bitter war in 1962. Jiabao and his 150-member delegation will also discuss ways to expand trade between two of the world's fastest growing economies, with the eventual establishment of a free trade area on the agenda during his four-day trip. China's ambassador to India, Sun Yuxi, said this week that the two sides were on the "last rung" of negotiations towards an agreement on the principles to settle their border dispute. A final settlement could still be years away, but they appear to move slowly towards the recognition of the status quo, with perhaps a few minor modifications. In essence, that would mean China relinquishing its claim to 90,000 square km (35,000 square miles) of territory in India's northeast, but retaining control of Aksai Chin, a barren, icy and unhabited slice of land on the Tibetan plateau which Beijing seized from the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir in 1962. By putting those border issues on the backburner in recent years, China and India have managed to build impressive economic ties, and trade will also grab the headlines during Wen's visit. At over $13 billion, trade has been growing at a breakneck pace of 30 percent a year for the past eight years. It could surpass $30 billion by 2010 as China overtakes the United States as India's largest trading partner. Last year, China proposed setting up a free trade area, covering a third of the globe's population but Indian officials are wary of throwing open their country to cheap Chinese goods. "We may look at a preferential trade agreement but there will be no free trade agreement now," a senior commerce ministry official told Reuters. "There are concerns which our domestic industries have and we will need to respect their concerns." |
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