BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for closer cooperation with India during an informal summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, amid tensions along their contested border and a rivalry for influence with their smaller neighbours that could determine dominance in Asia.
Xi greeted Modi at the provincial museum in Wuhan on Friday, marking the start of two days of talks between the heads of the world’s two most populous nations.
“Conducting great cooperation by our two great countries can generate worldwide influence,” Xi was quoted as saying by state broadcaster CCTV.
He said he hoped the meeting would “usher in a new chapter of China-India relations”.
After their talks, the leaders were set to dine lakeside at a resort that had been a favourite of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong, who formed strong ties with an independent India before relations deteriorated over territorial disputes.
They were to continue talks yesterday with a walk along the lake, a boat ride and lunch together.
Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Raveesh Kumar tweeted that the leaders would “review the developments in our bilateral relations from a strategic and long-term perspective”.
China-India relations date back centuries, but in recent decades have been characterised by competition for leadership in Asia.
The countries fought a border war in 1962 and last year engaged in a 10-week standoff in the neighbouring state of Bhutan.
New Delhi has also been alarmed by China’s moves to build strategic and economic ties with Indian Ocean nations such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives and India’s longtime rival Pakistan.
China, for its part, resents India’s hosting of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and its control of territory, which Beijing claims ownership over.
China claims some 90,000sq km of territory in India’s northeast, while India says China occupies 38,000sq km of its territory on the Aksai Chin Plateau in the western Himalayas.
Officials have met at least 20 times to discuss the competing border claims without making significant progress.
Following the most protracted standoff in years, India last year agreed to pull back troops from the disputed Doklam Plateau high in the Himalayas, where Chinese troops had begun constructing a road.
China claims the strategically important region, but India says it belongs to ally Bhutan.
Despite such differences, Modi hopes China can help drive Indian economic growth ahead of national elections next year.
However, his administration has been notably reluctant to engage with Beijing’s “Belt and Road” initiative linking its economy to those of Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe through massive loans and investments. — AP
