Published on Taipei Times
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2008/01/14/2003397204

Indian PM in Beijing for meetings

MISTRUST: Despite warming relations, the two Asian giants remain wary of each other over an unresolved border dispute and efforts to gain influence in the region

AP, BEIJING
Monday, Jan 14, 2008, Page 5

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, center, is greeted upon his arrival at the airport in Beijing, China, yesterday.
PHOTO: AP
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived in Beijing yesterday for a three-day visit aimed at boosting sometimes strained relations between the two Asian giants, whose massive populations and sizzling economies are increasingly driving world trade.

Singh was scheduled to meet with top Chinese leaders including President Hu Jintao (­JÀAÀÜ), Premier Wen Jiabao (·Å®aÄ_) and the Communist Party's No. 2 ranking official, Wu Bangguo (§d¨¹°ê), Xinhua news agency reported.

His visit, the first by an Indian prime minister in nearly five years, comes as the two countries enjoy a surge in trade to US$37 billion last year, almost touching the 2010 target of US$40 billion set during Hu's 2006 visit to New Delhi.

Singh, who took office in 2004, has also presided over an unprecedented increase in contacts between the two countries.

Mistrust remains, however, over decades-old clashes and an unresolved border dispute. The two countries have been depicted at times as rivals for economic and political supremacy in Asia.

China has longstanding close ties with India's rival, Pakistan, and some have interpreted Beijing's cultivation of Myanmar and other Indian neighbors as presaging a low-intensity competition for influence in the Indian Ocean

Prior to his departure, Singh said he would discuss "issues relating to the boundary," expected to include both the border dispute and India's concerns that Chinese troops have been making incursions over the de facto frontier.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu («¸·ì) sounded an upbeat note on the dispute last week, saying negotiations on the issue had garnered progress and China was "willing to work together with India so as to reach a fair and reasonable resolution framework acceptable to both."

However, prospects for a resolution of the dispute during Singh's visit appear unlikely, with 11 rounds of talks yielding little progress.