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Vajpayee upbeat after talks with Chinese

Visiting Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, left, meets with Chairman of the Military Commission and former Chinese president Jiang Zemin in Beijing yesterday. Vajpayee is on a six-day visit to bolster relations between the two countries. PHOTO: AP

India's relationship with China, long bedeviled by mutual suspicion and border disputes, has been transformed by a determination to cooperate and deal with problems, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said yesterday.

"I must say, with great satisfaction, that my meetings with the leadership of China have been excellent," he said as the two countries prepared to issue a declaration expected to give a push to resolving territorial disputes.

"They have confirmed the desire to build stable, enduring and forward-looking ties of friendships shared by the highest political levels in both countries," he said after talks with ex-president Jiang Zemin (江澤民), who commands China's vast military.

"Our present course of developing all-round bilateral cooperation while simultaneously addressing our differences has transformed the quality of our relationship," Vajpayee said.

The two countries signed the declaration on Monday. They refused to make it public immediately, but officials from both sides said they expected it to help them work to resolve disputes over their border, which crosses some of the world's most mountainous and remote terrain.

Nuclear-armed China and India fought a brief border war in 1962 and despite a thaw in relations, and years of talks, have failed to pin down exactly where their 3,500km border lies.

Vajpayee, making the first trip to China by an Indian prime minister in a decade, declared the era of mutual suspicion dead on Monday.

During his busy six-day visit, he is also due to meet President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), who took over only in March, and Vice President Zeng Qinghong (曾慶紅).

The two neighbors, whose combined populations comprise a third of humanity, signed a series of agreements on Monday laying out their vision of a new, closer relationship.

The official newspaper the China Daily said ties with India had entered a new phase after New Delhi explicitly recognized Tibet as part of China in the declaration.

China has long resented India's decision to give shelter to the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, following a 1959 revolt against Chinese rule.

The Dalai Lama and a self-proclaimed government-in-exile are based in the north Indian town of Dharamsala. New Delhi's position in the past has been that Tibet is an autonomous region of China.

The two sides also signed an agreement on expanding cross-border trade which could include a route through Sikkim, which China has long refused to recognize as part of India.

India annexed the tiny state bordering Tibet in 1975 after its legislature voted to abolish the monarchy.
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