By IANS
New Delhi : Ahead of his visit to Beijing, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Monday struck a note of cautious optimism saying that India-China relations were “in very good shape” as efforts were on to resolve the “complicated” border dispute.
“We have very good relations with China. My visit is a return visit,” Manmohan Singh said while alluding to the visits by President Hu Jintao in November 2006 and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao in April 2005.
“The process of resolving this issue is on…. It is a complicated matter,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a function at the Rashtrapati Bhavan when asked a question on the border dispute and China’s perceived hardening of stance on the issue.
“I am satisfied,” he said while alluding to the ongoing negotiations between special representatives of the two countries on the border issue.
Manmohan Singh was present at the Rashtrapati Bhavan when senior bureaucrat Vinod Rai was sworn in as the new Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) by President Pratibha Patil.
India and China have held several rounds of talks to resolve the decades-old border dispute, but a breakthrough has eluded the two countries, which are trying to put the border row behind to forge stronger political and economic ties.
The two rising Asian powers have set the speedy resolution of the border dispute as a strategic objective of their relationship.
Manmohan Singh will discuss the progress in border talks with the top Chinese leadership during his three-day visit beginning Sunday, but the border issue will not dominate the agenda, official sources said.
Instead, the focus will be on expanding economic ties – bilateral trade has already crossed $34 billion – and mutual affirmation of each other’s rising clout in world affairs.
Last week, the foreign ministries of the two countries announced Manmohan Singh’s official visit to China, with an upbeat Beijing saying it “attaches great importance” to his first trip to Asia’s economic giant.