China optimistic about India bilateral ties, happy with Manmohan Singh-Wen Jiabao meet

BEIJING: Sounding upbeat over the outcome of last week's meeting between the Prime Ministers of India and China in the midst of differences over the South China Sea dispute, Beijing today said "no power" can prevent the two countries from advancing their bilateral ties.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had met his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao in Bali last week on the sidelines of the East Asia and ASEAN summits and the recent war of words over oil exploration activities of India's ONGC Videsh in the South China Sea are believed to have figured in the talks.

"During the meeting, the Chinese side expressed willingness to work with the Indian side to pursue the path of friendship and cooperation, and push forward bilateral relations," spokesman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Liu Weimin, told a media briefing here today.

He was replying to a question on the outcome of the Singh- Wen meeting in the backdrop of reports that the South China Sea issue on which the two countries have different perceptions figured in the talks.

"On business cooperation, the two sides enjoy great cooperation potential and we hope to continue to create favourable conditions for the free flow of commodities, technology, finance and services, and encourage enterprises from both sides to invest and have contract cooperation to the benefit of both countries and peoples," Liu said.

He said the Indian side also stated that the strategic cooperation partnership is beneficial to both countries.

"There is no power in the world that can prevent the development of bilateral relations between the two countries," he said apparently referring to US efforts to isolate China on the South China Sea disputes.