India, China hold strategic dialogue, hail momentum in ties

BEIJING: India today assured China of its commitment to consolidate strategic bilateral ties based on mutual trust as well as sensitiveness to each other's concerns and aspirations, as their top diplomats held the annual strategic dialogue here amid the Indian general elections.

Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh co-chaired the sixth round of the Strategic Dialogue with her Chinese counterpart Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin at the picturesque Diaoyutai guest house.

The talks were held as the long-running Lok Sabha elections, hailed as the world's biggest democratic exercise, got underway in India that will form a new government at the Centre.

Singh, in her opening remarks, said: "My visit here today is to reiterate to the government of China that the government of India attaches the highest priority to India's relations with China.

"We are committed to consolidating our strategic and cooperative partnership for peace and prosperity. The core of our vision is of a good neighbourly relationship based on mutual trust and understanding and where we are sensitive to each other's concerns and aspiration."

"As our Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh) articulated on several occasions, there is sufficient space in the world for both India and China to meet their developmental aspirations within our respective processes of economic and social development there is great scope for bilateral cooperation," Singh said.

Stating that the annual Strategic Dialogue is being held in less than a year, she told Liu that "it is symbolic of the fact that our relations are growing and our interactions are increasing".

China said it was "confident" that India will stay committed to strong bilateral ties irrespective of whichever party comes to power after the polls.

"We are confident that to promote China-India friendship is a shared consensus of all political parties in India," Liu said ahead of his meeting with Singh.

"So I am confident that whichever party comes into power in India, it will stay committed to friendship and cooperation between the two countries," he said.

Liu, in his opening remarks, appreciated the timing of the talks between the two foreign ministries, terming the Indian general elections as "very important".