India-China good relations to benefit Asia, world: Singapore FM

KOLKATA: Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo today said good relations between India and China would benefit Asia and the world.

"If these two countries have the wisdom to cooperate and resolve disputes in a peaceful way, Asia will be completely transformed and with it, the rest of the world," Yeo said, observing that India and China's re-emergence on the world stage was already altering the shape of global politics and economics.

Yeo was speaking on the platform of 'Tagore's Dream for Good Relations Between India and China' at the Netaji Research Bureau here. His comments accompany a new controversy arising out of border dispute between India and China.

India considers the operational border with China, including the line demarcating Jammu and Kashmir, and Arunachal Pradesh from Tibet in China to be nearly 3,500 kilometres long.

However, China has stoked controversy by not recognising the 1,597-km-long border that separates Jammu and Kashmir in India from China.

"China and India share a 2,000-km-long border that has never been formally demarcated," Xinuha, China's official news agency, was quoted by media earlier this week.

While stating that the border between India and China remains a 'dispute,' and media on both sides tends to 'sensationalise matters', the Singaporean minister said that leaders of both the countries were mindful of the necessity of good bilateral relations for each other to develop.

"Much has been made of the rivalry between China and India in recent months, some of which no doubt is in the interest of third parties," he said.