By IANS
New Delhi : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has assured Chinese President Hu Jintao that a quadripartite dialogue among India, the US, Japan and Australia held last month is not directed against Beijing but is aimed at enhancing cooperation in areas like disaster management.
"I have told the Chinese president that this dialogue forum is not a security bloc and is not directed against China," Manmohan Singh told reporters when asked to comment on Beijing's concerns about the quadripartite forum.
Manmohan Singh was speaking to journalists after launching "The New Asian Power Dynamic", a collection of essays mapping the rise of Asia on the global stage, at his 7 Race Course residence Wednesday.
China had sought an explanation from New Delhi, Washington, Tokyo and Canberra for holding the first-ever meeting of senior officials of the four nations on May 24-25 in Manila, the Philippines.
Expressing its concerns, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang had asked the four countries not to go against the global trend and be "open and inclusive".
The meeting, held on the sidelines of an ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) session, discussed the intensification of cooperation among the four nations on disaster management, trade and energy. The four countries agreed to meet again to continue their dialogue.
In his speech while launching the book, the prime minister stressed on "an informed understanding of each other" in Asia as the "rise of Asian economies alter the global balance of wealth and power". Manmohan Singh also stressed on a mutually beneficial relationship with China and spoke about ongoing efforts to resolve the border row between them.
"The rapid growth of the economies of China and India has created new opportunities for expansion of trade and investment to our mutual benefit," he stressed.
"Simultaneously, we are engaged in a joint exercise to find a just and fair settlement of the border problem," the prime minister added.
"The most important development of the 21st century will be the rise of Asia," Manmohan Singh said, but stressed that this "should not worry the West".
"We in Asia must learn to deal with this new opportunity. We need cooperative and consultative institutions and mechanisms to deal with this changing dynamics," he said.