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Close on the heels of the meeting between the prime ministers of India and China in Thailand, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi met in Bangalore and both agreed to continue "the process of building trust and understanding" to resolve all outstanding issues, including the border dispute.
"We both see this as a part of the process of building trust and understanding at the political level," said Krishna while addressing the media after his 90-minute meeting with Yang.
Krishna stressed that he was "satisfied" with the meeting that took place against the backdrop of mutual recriminations on a host of issues, including the border dispute, reported Chinese incursions and Beijing's repeated claims on India's northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh.
All these issues were discussed in the meeting, official sources said.
"We agreed on the importance of further developing high-level exchanges for enhancing trade and economic cooperation and on defence contacts," Krishna said.
The two sides also decided to expand their cultural ties and people-to-people contacts. These will be in focus during the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of India-China relations next year.
The two foreign ministers welcomed the positive outcome of the meetings between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on the sidelines of multilateral summits in Hua Hin resort in Thailand, and decided to develop their economic, cultural and defence relations.
The two prime ministers had agreed "to narrow differences" over the border dispute and to maintain "peace and tranquility" along their disputed border.
"We ... agreed that existing mechanism for bilateral cooperation should be used to resolve all issues amicably in the spirit of strategic and cooperative partnership," Manmohan Singh had said.
Krishna accepted Yang's invitation to visit Beijing. Dates will be worked out, he said.
