By IANS
New Delhi : Ahead of his three-day visit to China, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday struck a positive note, saying engaging Beijing was “a necessity” and hoped that his visit will give “a new thrust” to ties between the two countries.
Manmohan Singh, who goes to Beijing Saturday night, underlined that India looked forward to expanding cooperation with China in all areas, and New Delhi was not part of any effort to contain Beijing.
“China is our largest neighbour and in many ways engagement with China is an imperative and necessity,” Manmohan Singh told reporters on the sidelines of a function at his residence.
“Engaging China will be a priority. We will discuss all issues,” the prime minister replied when asked about his expectations from the China visit – the first by an Indian prime minister in nearly five years.
“There is no misunderstanding. The quadripartite dialogue never got going in the first place,” Manmohan Singh when asked about Beijing’s concerns about the quadripartite dialogue involving India, the US, Australia and Japan.
“India is not part of any effort to contain China,” the prime minister underlined.
Manmohan Singh said this after launching the inaugural edition of “India and Global Affairs” – a journal on foreign policy issues edited by journalist Dileep Padgaonkar. In his speech, Manmohan Singh exhorted Indian policymakers to think big and underlined the need for foreign policy to be more proactive rather than reactive.
Last year, Beijing had sent a demarche to New Delhi asking it to explain the rationale for holding the quadripartite dialogue and had expressed apprehensions that such an exercise meant isolating China in a concert of democracies.
The prime minister’s categorical disclaimer has sent a clear message to the Chinese leadership that New Delhi remained committed to deepening ties with Beijing.
“We see increasing avenues of cooperation with China and we will give new thrust to our ties with China,” he said ahead of his talks with top Chinese leaders, including President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, in Beijing Monday.
India and China will sign at least five pacts during Manmohan Singh’s visit in fields as diverse as land management, housing, traditional medicine, railways and geosciences.
Manmohan Singh will also discuss with Chinese leaders the decades-old border dispute that has dogged ties between the two Asian powers.
The two countries have held 11 rounds of talks to resolve the border dispute but no breakthrough has been achieved so far.
India and China have set the resolution of the border row as the strategic objective of their growing relationship. They finalised guiding principles and political parameters to resolve it when the Chinese premier visited India in April 2005.