Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan said in Beijing Wednesday hat
China and India share more common grounds than differences, and he
is optimistic about the prospects of Sino-Indian relations.
Tang made the remark at a press conference of the current session
of the National People's Congress (NPC) in replying to an Indian
correspondent.
Tang confirmed that Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh, his "old
friend," is going to visit China at the end of this month at his
invitation.
Tang described Premier Zhu Rongji's visit to India in January this
year as "very successful", and said it resulted in remarkable
progress in Sino-Indian relations.
He
said he hoped the upcoming visit to China by his Indian counterpart
will help to bring Sino-Indian ties into a new phase of
development.
China and India share many "common interests" on quite a number of
major international issues, as well as in bilateral relations of
trade and economic, scientific and technical cooperation.
According to the Chinese foreign minister, Chinese and Indian
experts have made new progress on the border issue through talks
and negotiations.
(Xinhua News
Agency March 6, 2002)