PM meets Chinese premier

Hanoi, Oct 29 (PTI) Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
and his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao on Friday agreed that
there was enough space in the world for both the countries to
grow as they met here in the first top level contact since the
high-level defence exchanges were suspended in July following
the low over stapled visas issued for people of India's
northern most state Jammu and Kashmir.
Wen also said that he would be visiting India by the
end of this year before which he wanted a "strong foundation"
to be laid to make it successful.
The Chinese premier is expected to visit India on
December 16.
As he met Singh here on the sidelines of the ASEAN
Summit, the Chinese Premier talked about the "shared history"
of India and his country.
In his opening remarks at the meeting, he said there
was space in the world for both the countries to grow for
which "cooperation" was needed.
Singh, while expressing happiness over meeting Wen for
the 10th time in the last six years, reiterated that India and
China could grow as there is enough space for the ambitions of
both the countries.
The meeting took place in the backdrop of China's
refusal to relent on its policy of issuing stapled visas to
people of Jammu and Kashmir, an action which is seen as
questioning India's sovereignty.
China started the practice of issuing the stapled
visas about two years back and the issue triggered a major row
in July this year when Beijing wanted to give such a visa to
India's Northern Area Commander Lt Gen B S Jaswal.
India responded by suspending high-level defence
exchanges for which Lt Gen Jaswal was travelling to Beijing
and has repeatedly made it clear that these will remain on
"pause" till China reverts to its earlier position on Jammu
and Kashmir.
The two leaders are understood to have discussed
economic aspects of the relationship amid India's concerns
over trade imbalance in favour of China.
Trade between the two fast-growing economies has been
increasing and is targeted to be USD 60 billion. However, it
is in favour of China to the tune of about USD 15 billion,
particularly because of lack of adequate access to India's
pharmaceuticals and services in China.
India has been pressing China to give more free access
and has been assured that it would be considered.