HUA HIN, Thailand, Oct 24 (Reuters) – Leaders of China and India agreed on Saturday to “gradually narrow their differences on border issues”, a perpetual strain in relations between the two giant neighbours which has flared in recent weeks.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, meeting on the sidelines of an Asian summit in Thailand, also agreed to try to ensure peace and stability in the border area, China’s official Xinhua news agency said.
Friction over a disputed swath of land along their Himalayan border has been rising, most recently over plans for Tibet’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama to visit the Indian border state of Arunachal Pradesh in two weeks.
Beijing reviles the Dalai Lama as a dangerous separatist, and has protested against the trip saying it was further proof of the Nobel Peace Prize winning monk’s scheming.
“The two sides agreed to continue talks, with the aim of incrementally removing the barriers to a solution that was fair and acceptable to both sides,” Xinhua said.
Both sides declined an immediate comment about the meeting.
China claims about 90,000 sq km (35,000 sq miles) of the region as part of its territory. The two countries fought a short border war in 1962 and, despite burgeoning trade in recent years, mistrust remains.
There have been reports in Indian media of Chinese incursions along the border — shrugged off by both governments — and Delhi this month protested against a Chinese embassy policy of issuing different visas to residents of disputed Kashmir.
Xinhua said they “agreed on Saturday to gradually narrow differences on border issues”.
Singh “underscored the importance for both sides to build better understanding and trust at the political level so that our relations remain robust and strong”, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.
Differences should not impede “the growth of functional cooperation between the two countries”, it said.
The Dalai Lama plans to make a week-long visit to the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh which borders China in early November.
Beijing has protested against the trip saying it was further proof of the Dalai Lama’s scheming. But India, which has been home to the exiled Dalai Lama since he fled a failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, has cleared the visit.
The spat comes as India and China vie for regional supremacy.
In August, India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc of 10 countries signed a free trade agreement after more than six years of negotiations that would eliminate tariffs on a wide range of products.
The agreement will take effect on Jan. 1, 2010 — the same day a China-ASEAN free trade agreement is launched.
Xinhua said Wen and Singh agreed to encourage trade and investment, in the hope that annual trade could hit $60 billion by 2010.
(Reporting by John Ruwitch; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
