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Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has met with the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Thailand on Saturday for holding discussions on various bilateral and international issues, even while the cold war between the two nations is ongoing.
Wen, during his opening address, mentioned that “we want to have healthy and steady relationship with India”, while Manmohan extended his wishes to China for celebrating the 60th anniversary.
The two prime Ministers met in wake of the ongoing war between India and China on Arunachal Pradesh. China, which has disclosed that Arunachal Pradesh is a part of China, had raised protests when the Indian prime minister visited the state for campaigning, for which India had mentioned that Arunachal is India’s vital part.
"Bilateral relationship will be in focus," foreign secretary Nirupama Rao said last night ahead of the meeting between Singh and Wen.
Rao said the relationship between the two countries is a "complex one" though it has "developed in many areas" in recent years.
"You are aware of the outstanding issues that remain to be resolved between India and China and obviously in meetings of this nature, especially meetings between leadership at the highest level, there is an opportunity to address all these issues," Rao said.
Wen had cited that the Indian Prime Minister is his old friend and recalled their previous meetings. "In the years ahead we are confident that we will have good relations," the Chinese premier said.
Commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma, Prime Minister's principal secretary T K A Nair and joint secretary (East Asia) N Ravi are also with Indian Prime Minister.
