By IANS
New Delhi : India’s ties with China are poised to enter “a vibrant and dynamic phase”, which will in turn contribute to global peace and stability, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said before he left here late Saturday night for Beijing on a three-day visit.
Hours before his departure, Manmohan Singh said India attaches “high priority to strengthening relations with China” and hoped that the two countries can work closely on regional, multilateral and global issues.
“China is our largest neighbour and also a focal point of our ‘Look East’ policy. We attach high priority to strengthening our relations with China,” he said.
“Issues relating to the boundary and cooperation with regard to trans-boundary rivers will be discussed,” Manmohan Singh said on the eve of his talks with top Chinese leaders, including Premier Wen Jiabao and President Hu Jintao.
The focus of his visit, the prime minister stressed, was to impart “substantive content” to a strategic partnership between the two countries by accelerated engagement in science and technology, culture, education, defence and security and increasing people-to-people contacts.
“I will be discussing how we can work more closely with China on regional, multilateral and global issues,” he said.
In a message aimed at the world community which will be closely watching his visit to China, Manmohan Singh underlined the relationship of cooperation and complementarity between the two Asian powers which some see as rivals for regional and global influence.
“Our bilateral relations are now poised to enter a vibrant and dynamic phase, based on a common recognition that the growth and development of both India and China will make positive and long term contributions to regional and global peace, security and stability,” he said.
“We share a desire to enhance our relationship both bilaterally and at the global level,” said Manmohan Singh while placing the burgeoning India-China ties in the context of an evolving global order.
“I look forward to my visit. It is my belief that regular summit level interaction with China contributes to strengthening our cooperative engagement and enhancing mutual trust and understanding.”
India will seek China’s support in its quest for global civil nuclear cooperation and stress on an early resolution of the border dispute during Manmohan Singh’s visit to Beijing.
In an interview to Xinhua News Agency Friday, Manmohan Singh had stressed on an early end to the decades-old border dispute that will give a big push to steadily improving ties between the two Asian giants.
India-China relations, he added, “have today transcended their bilateral dimension and have acquired global and strategic significance”.
India and China are expected to sign five agreements in fields as diverse as land management, housing, traditional medicine, railways and geosciences during Manmohan Singh’s visit – the fifth visit by an Indian prime minister to China since Jawaharlal Nehru went there in 1954.
While Commerce Minister Kamal Nath has already reached Beijing along with a business delegation, National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and other senior officials accompanied the prime minister.
The official part of Manmohan Singh’s visit begins only Monday, but Manmohan Singh and his delegation have been advised to keep some time in hand by authorities in Beijing in case the current foggy weather that has disrupted flights at many Chinese airports makes landing difficult on Sunday.