India, China to have maritime cooperation

New Delhi, Mar 1 (PTI) In a confidence-building move, India and China today decided to have maritime cooperation dialogue during the talks between the two Foreign Ministers who also discussed a host of crucial issues including those troubling the ties. India’s External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi also focused on the preparations and outcome document for the forthcoming Summit of the five-nation grouping BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) during their talks apart from reviewing the entire gamut of bilateral relations. The Summit is being held here at the month-end. "Every possible issue that is raised whenever India-China dialogue takes place was raised and we have understood each other's position and we have understood the perspective and we will continue to exchange these," Krishna told reporters after the meeting with Yang. He was asked if the issues of recent visit of Defence Minister A K Antony to India’s northeastern Arunachal Pradesh state, which led to heated exchanges between the two countries, and self immolations by 'free Tibet' protesters, were raised during the meeting. The decision to have maritime cooperation dialogue is significant as both countries have been indulging in verbal sparring over the territorial issue of South China sea where India has interest in Vietnamese oil blocks. It will include cooperation at the level of defence, navy and coast guard, government sources said. The move to have maritime cooperation dialogue comes ahead of Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Delhi for the BRICS Summit. On the margin of the Summit, there will be a bilateral meeting between Hu and India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Meanwhile, the Joint Working Group on Counter Terrorism to exchange information and strengthen international cooperation to combat terrorism and transnational organized crime also met. The two sides also talked about the trade imbalance between them with official spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin maintaining that the Chinese leader took "serious note" of India's concern over the issue. Yang, who arrived here last evening, kicked off his brief official visit with an official dinner by Krishna last night. Terming India's ties with China as "positive", Krishna said they needed to be strengthened, deepened and broadened. On the reports that the Siang (Brahmaputra) river originating from Tibet was suddenly found to have almost dried up at a town in Arunachal Pradesh allegedly due to dam construction by China, Krishna said the Ambassador to China, who has been apprised of the reports, will be looking into it. Krishna also referred to his statement in Parliament over China constructing a dam at Zangmu in the middle reaches of Yarlung Tsangpo (as the Brahmaputra is called in Tibet) and said the satellite imagery of the site has only shown that it was a run-of-the-river hydro-electricity project. Briefing the reporters, External Affairs Ministry Joint Secretary (China division) Gautam Bambawale said the working mechanism "for appropriately handling border incidents and timely communication of information on the border situation", decided upon after the conclusion of the 15th round of Special Representative (SR) talks last month on the protracted boundary dispute, will meet next week in China. According to a Chinese Embassy release on Yang's meeting with Krishna, the two sides agreed there is enough space for India and China to grow together and enough areas for mutual cooperation. "A stable and steadily growing China-India relationship is not only in the interest of the Chinese and Indian peoples but also conducive to peace, stability and prosperity in Asia and the world," it said. Yang also met Vice-President Md Hamid Ansari and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The suggestion for maritime cooperation dialogue was from the Chinese side. "Both India and China are maritime nations with long coastlines," Bambawale said. Recognising the role of the media in shaping of public perceptions of crucial India-China ties, Beijing has also decided to permit Zee TV to broadcast in China. As the Foreign Ministers of India and China held talks, Tibetan activists protested and raised anti-China slogans. Police detained nearly a dozen Tibetan activists. PTI