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Hu calls for 'long-term vision'

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-10-27 10:26

The world's two most populous countries should have a "far-sighted, strategic and long-term perspective" in their joint effort to overcome the global financial crisis, President Hu Jintao told Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday.

"China and India are major developing nations and developing good-neighborly relations has been a consistent policy of the Chinese government," Hu told Singh on the sidelines of the 7th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM).

The two countries should take care to "properly handle each other's concerns", he said. China and India have common interests in resolving global issues, from the international financial crisis and climate change to energy and food security.

Hu's hour-long meeting with Singh in the Great Hall of the People was the third between the two leaders this year.

Singh told journalists later that the meeting was "pleasant", and Hu agreed with him that the two countries would achieve their bilateral trade target of $60 billion in 2010.

"We expressed satisfaction at the rapid growth of trade turnover which now exceeds $40 billion. Both of us expressed confidence that target will be realized," a report quoted Singh as having said on board his plane back to New Delhi.

Singh was satisfied with the progress of talks to resolve the boundary issue with China, too.

"We also touched upon the boundary issue. Both of us expressed our keen desire to find an early settlement. We agreed that we should instruct our special representatives to expedite the process," he said.

It was the first time India attended the ASEM, where Singh said the country's presence had been felt. "India is a major emerging economy, and this is the first time we were there and made our presence felt," the Economic Times quoted Singh as having said on Saturday.