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| Monday, 2 June 2003 |
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India and China bury hatchet, talk business ST PETERSBURG, Russia, Sunday (Reuters)-The leaders of China and India put aside traditional distrust when they met for the first time and agreed to build economic links between the world's two most populous nations. An Indian official told Reuters that Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee would announce in the next few days a date to visit Beijing this year, the first by an Indian premier in a decade. "This helped them to get to know each other and prepare for that visit," the official said after the meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao on the sidelines of the 300th anniversary celebrations of St Petersburg, Russia's former tsarist capital. "This was not the place to discuss sensitive bilateral issues. It was more of a big picture meeting," he added. The two leaders skirted around issues such as border disputes, China's military cooperation with India's arch rival Pakistan, and Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who lives in India. Instead, the official said, they focused on expanding economic links between the two countries, which together represent more than a third of humanity and are both angling to join the Group of Eight rich nations in the next few years. Chinese State Councillor and former foreign minister Tang Jiaxuan told reporters the two discussed border disputes but did not dwell on the issue. "We warmly welcome the Indian prime minister to make this important visit to China very soon," he said. India has been wary of China since losing a savage border war in 1962 and the two sides have yet to agree a final demarcation of their 4,500-km (2,800-mile) frontier. Beijing has long been troubled by New Delhi's decision to give shelter to the Dalai Lama when he fled his homeland in 1959 after a failed revolt against Chinese rule. Vajpayee also met Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Jacques Chirac and British Prime Minister Tony Blair in St Petersburg. |
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